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Post by dbsteff on Dec 26, 2008 8:24:42 GMT -5
WLRS MEMORABILIA-- CIRCA 1968
I sent a piece of WLRS memorabilia to John Quincy a few days ago. What value it will have to him or to LKY Radio remains to be seen.
I have been transferring my old program tapes from my days at WLRS from tape to CD. One of them proved to be an exception. I have always taken great care to preserve these tapes in an appropriate atmosphere to ensure they would survive the years....about 40 years, at this writing.
The transfer process has gone well, and accounts for the audio snippets (air checks) that I submitted and John Quincy was so kind to post.
One of these tapes, however, was naughty. It promptly began to delaminate, gumming up my tape heads and causing me to say "shuckie foot" and other such remarks. I couldn't figure out why this one tape was the exception. After a close look, I discovered that this tape, an "AudioTape" tm, as were many other of my tapes, was different in that it was the special lubrication type intended for continuous loop cartridges. I suppose it was this special lubrication that contributed to the problem.
Anyway, I wound up throwing the darned tape in the garbage. I started to do the same with its box, but decided that it might be a piece of memorabilia from the 1968 era of WLRS. It still had the tunes content typed to WLRS stationery and affixed to the inside of the box. So, I packed it up and mailed it to John Quincy. He should receive it in a day or so. Don't know if he will find it something to keep or something to trash.
As I come across other such WLRS related items, I'll send them along as well.
Regards
Dan
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Post by dbsteff on Dec 26, 2008 7:41:40 GMT -5
Having been away from Louisville for many years, I can't second-guess or debate any of the critique I read here. Still I'd be sad to hear that the call letters WLRS should cease to exist. As I said earlier. I was part of the very early history of WLRS and hope to know that, at least the call sign survives. I know the station has changed in just about every was: Operating location, frequency, air staff, management, etc., Still the call sign endures as a local icon....WLRS...so, I hope it continues to do so regardless of any slings and arrows directed at it.
Regards and Happy Holidays
Dan
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Post by dbsteff on Dec 24, 2008 10:27:41 GMT -5
Just a note of THANKS to John Quincy for posting my 1968 CHRISTMAS at WLRS program audio. It can be downloaded from the special Merry Christmas link on the LKYRadio home page.
MERRY CHRISTMAS To each and ALL
Dan
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Post by dbsteff on Dec 23, 2008 7:05:24 GMT -5
MERRY CHRISTMAS....HAPPY HOLIDAYS...HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! to each and all of you. Thanks again for taking time to read my posts.
John Quincy had told me he might post another of my audio snippets....WLRS Christmas Music 1968 as Christmas approached. I hope he will. It can serve as my Christmas present to you all.
Regards
DAn
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Post by dbsteff on Dec 19, 2008 7:59:23 GMT -5
I spent some time with my buddy, Don Fugate over the T-giving holiday. He reminded me that it was he who was on-air when the earthquake took place, as I recounted in a story on this forum. He also related some WXVW related stories. I have asked him to write those stories under his own hand and submit them. I hope he will follow-up.
It seems like our time in Louisville 1967--69 was an eternity ago, yet it seems like only last week. Guess that's what happens when you get to my age...60.
I want to thank each and all of you who have taken time to read my submissions. It means a lot to me.
Hope your Christmas or other holiday celebrations prove to be the best ever.
I'm tapped out for additional stories, but should any others fly to mind, I'll be sure to write them as well.
If you haven't sampled the "audio snippets" I submitted as air checks, please do. John Quincy was so kind as to post them on the WLRS page here at LKY Radio. I'd be interested in your perceptions.
REGARDS!
Dan
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Post by dbsteff on Dec 19, 2008 7:21:52 GMT -5
I went to the WLRS website to see if the "Old School" pics that I had submitted were still posted under the Locals Only tab....they were. Checking the "Jocks" tab, however, produced a blank page. Sad......Having been part of the early days at WLRS, I sure hope it survives. My years at WLRS are very dear to me...so I hope they don't blow it.
Regards
Dan
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Post by dbsteff on Dec 18, 2008 7:09:34 GMT -5
GREAT STORY...Thanks.
All sorts of machinations were went through by stations all over the country trying to move to stereo, but relying, primarily, on the equipment they already had.
As I said, and apparently you also learned, it was a very big deal to proclaim "Broadcasting in Stereo" in those days.
Regards
Barry
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Post by dbsteff on Nov 22, 2008 9:57:06 GMT -5
WLRS 1968 Christmas Greeting
One of the audio snippets that John Quincy posted on the WLRS page ( see “excerpts”) is of my “1968 Christmas Greeting” from the Air Staff.
There would have been two additional voices identified in the greeting, but one was not available that evening, and the other simply failed to show up, as requested.
Therefore, the four of us who did show up recorded the greeting. They were:
Dick Brabant
Dan Steffen
Don Fugate
Glen Behr.
WLRS had no production studio. All production, Spots, PSA’s Promos’ etc. were produced at WXVW and the carts were transported across the river to WLRS. When I got the idea to produce the Christmas Greeting, I knew I’d have to do it in the WLRS main studio, after sign off….after 1AM. It was the one chance I had to do so. There was to be no re-do.
The four of us, therefore, recorded the script for the greeting, and the others dispersed afterwards. I was on air.
After sign off, I did the production work and produced a cart, which I placed in the rack. The PD even assigned it to the program log to ensure it would get play.
The one DJ who was unavailable for the recording session, had no problem with the fact that his voice wasn’t included……he was a weekend guy anyway. The other, who failed to show up….”Jim” was not so gracious.
Strange, the psychology involved. He knew that this was the only opportunity for me to produce this Greeting. I hadn’t excluded him purposely. We even added a statement to the script that “From the ENTIRE STAFF” here at WLRS…..”
None of that mattered.
For Jim it was WLRS BAH HUMBUG.
Regards
Dan
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Post by dbsteff on Nov 5, 2008 14:12:48 GMT -5
WLRS '68 No Barefoot in the Park
I spoke with my buddy Don, over the weekend, to see what time we might spend together over the T-Giving holidays. He reminded me of a story I had long forgotten, so I thought I'd relate it here:
As I have mentioned before, both Don and I had performed at both WXVW and WLRS. Our respective tastes in music were quite different, particularly as it goes to vocals. Our choice in instrumentals differed greatly, as well. So, one particular evening, while Don was on-air at WLRS, he elected to play a tune (instrumental) that I never much cared for: ` "Barefoot in the Park¨.
Don reminds me that during the course of that tune playing, he received a call from Clarence Henson, himself. Clarence told Don that he never wanted to hear that song again. Don had had that experience with Clarence before and knew what the command really meant. It meant to take a scribe and literally scratch that cut off the album such that can't be played, by anyone.
Don complied.
Clarence never called me with any such complaint or command. I have always mused about it. I don't know if Clarence was more pleased with my selection of music..or if he just wasn't listening. :-)
Some tunes, however, were hits, as evidenced when the phone began to ring. When folks would call in to ask "What was that?", I knew I had found a winner.
Sometimes I'd get out ahead of the curve and stop by the music store and buy certain 45s I had heard on WAKY and other stations that I thought were really good. I even dared to sneak in "Unchained Melody"and "You've lost that lovin feeling¨ by The Righteous Brothers, which were very popular at the time, and which became classics as time went on.
As far as instrumentals went, I brought "Love is Blue" by Paul Mauriat (Forgotten the correct spelling) onto the WLRS turntables, which caused the phones to ring off the hook. Another tune that proved to be very much requested was one that was written by Arthur Fiedler and performed by the Boston Pops Orchestra for President Lyndon Johnson, to honor him and his beloved home in the Hill Country of Texas..called, therefore, "The Hill Country Theme¨ My signature tune, which I used to open my show every evening was "Evening Shadows" by Mr. Aker Bilk. "Mary in the Morning" by uh, I think, Ed Ames, or was it Al Martino? I mentioned earlier in the thread that my favorite tune for restroom visits was "The Blue Tango¨ by the 101 Strings Orchestra. It is over 4 and a half minutes long, so it served that purpose well, but it was also a very popular tune. Lots of Herb Alpert tunes were very popular at the time, as well..."The Lonely Bull¨ and many others.
All you Napster fans may wish to check out some of these which pre-date you delving into radio. Dan
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Post by dbsteff on Nov 5, 2008 12:15:27 GMT -5
Hi; About the same time I moved to Louisville and went to work for WLRS / WXVW from Huntington WV. a fellow DJ from WKEE-AM also moved from Huntington to Louisville and went to work as a DJ for WHAS. His name was Jim Schnieder...AKA the "Flying Dutchman" Do you recall him? Do you have any of his old (late 60s) vintage airchecks?
I understand that he's deceased now, but it would be interesting to hear his voice again.
Regards
Dan
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Post by dbsteff on Nov 3, 2008 7:51:11 GMT -5
LOOSEN UP ON THE BOARD…DA-----IT
Having most recently come to WLRS from a top 40 station, I was already conditioned to run a very tight board. “Dead Air” was anathema to me, and I think to virtually all rock stations. When I found myself at W-L-R-S in 1967, an easy listening station, I had a difficult time adjusting. The norm for such stations was far more like a true classical station, that is lots of silence between musical selections, silence into the news, and silence into everything. It absolutely drove me crazy. I would get calls from our PD at the time…..soon as I would answer the studio line, there would be his voice:
“Loosen up on the board, DANGIT!” He would say. (Accept he didn’t say DANG---)
I tried and tried and, gradually, made some progress over time, but still, I never tolerated much dead air. I guess, after some period of time, he gave up on me, knowing the brief….very brief, dead air I would allow between selections, etc. was the best I was going to do.
It’s just one of the memories that have come to me, as I have been considering my time at WLRS.
Regards
Dan
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Post by dbsteff on Oct 29, 2008 12:28:27 GMT -5
The WLRS Transmitter ¡¥68I have mentioned the RCA-BTF 10-D Transmitter that we enjoyed when we moved to the 800 Bldg. I have had a hard time finding a pic of one. The link here, however, does include a pic of an RCA BTF-10C¡K..which looks identical in its appearance to a BTF 10-D .I thought you might like to see it. The one we had at WLRS at the time was brand new¡K.at least till the infamous lightning strike ƒº www.oldradio.com/archives/hardware/rca-tx.htm Also, the technical manual, including a larger pic of the BTF 10-D can be found at: sujan.hallikainen.org/BroadcastHistory/index.php/RCA Regards Dan
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Post by dbsteff on Oct 27, 2008 6:53:50 GMT -5
WLRS ’68 favorite gear: I’ve always been more than a simple user of station gear. I really appreciate the design creativity and even the packaging “art” of equipment. While at WLRS, I came to develop such an “affection” for certain of the equipment Clarence had chosen for the station. In particular, was the RCA BC-9 console. In the same way one comes to an “affection” for a particular car, lots of guys develop similar appreciation for gear. The RCA BC-9 is shown in the pics that John Quincy was so kind to post on the WLRS page on LKYRadio.com. It was rugged, well styled, and easy to operate. The “Digital” channel selection feature allowed one to cross-fade from one source to any other and still keep the number of pots on the console to a mere 4. Consoles were always my favorite. The first one I ever encountered was at a station in my hometown, WWHY-AM. It was a GATES SA-40. In those days, consoles were more commanding, almost intimidating, in their style and appearance. So it was with the GATES SA-40. Gates, as you may know was later acquired by Harris Corp, and ceased to exist as a brand name. Pity, as GATES was good stuff. Now consoles have an entirely different appearance, and since they adopted sliders in place of rotary pots, I don’t especially care for them. I feel, and have always felt that rotary pots are far more ergonomic than sliders, as the wrist action involved in operating a rotary pot is far more natural and comfortable than the action required for a slider. That, of course, is just my opinion, and many of you may prefer the slider. The SA-40, to a high school kid, as I was at the time, looked like something out of Star Trek…..I was turned on and could hardly wait to get my hands on it. Ever seen one? Well it can be found on the old GATES website: www.oldradio.com/archives/hardware/gates-st.htm Sure the RCA BC-7 was already around by the time I encountered the SA-40, but I hadn’t encountered it yet. The BC-7 was a really sexy looking console. We had one at the original WLRS location. We moved to the RCA BC-9 when we moved to the 800 Building. The BC-7 we had at WLRS 3rd Street location was moved, if memory serves, to WORX in Madison IN. You can see one, at least partially, on my DJ page in an old publicity shot from 1973 at a station in WV. I’m sure any of you could talk to your favorite piece of gear, as well. Microphones are another piece of gear that DJs and other Radio personnel tend to develop favorites. Mine was always the RCA 77-DX. You know, like the one Larry King uses as a prop on his TV show. The 77-DX is one of the most sought after classic studio mics of all time. It used a unique technique. It was a “ribbon-velocity” microphone. It’s pick up element was not a diaphragm as in most dynamic mics…it was a “ribbon” suspended in a powerful horseshoe magnet. It was contained in a “Medicine capsule” shaped housing which included an internal baffling system that could be adjusted to select the polar pattern desired, and an equalization switch to select the desired roll-off characteristics. It could be set for a throaty, even bassy, sound. DJs loved it. WLRS and WXVW had a collection of EV-666 and RCA BK-5 and Turner 510 microphones. Just about any vintage microphone that one might have developed an affinity for can be found on the following website. www.k-bay106.com/photos.htm or www.coutant.org/contents.html I thought the reader might appreciate all the old and popular mics shown on this site. As far as some of the other ’68 studio / RF equipment that I felt Clarence had done a very good job in selecting, and which can be seen in the pics that John has posted on the WLRS page, are: The Collins Audio processor / Limiter. This is the gray box mounted just above the home made transmitter control panel, which I have spoken of elsewhere. I liked it for the same reason that Clarence did. More than any of its competition, it had an “attack” and “release” mode of operation that was so seamless one couldn’t detect any clipping or other artifacts typical of other such processors. I must be careful in referring to this piece of equipment as an audio processor. That is, indeed, what it was, but the term congers up the impression that it was as sophisticated as the “processors” of today. Those available today are far more capable than our old WLRS Collins Audio processor, pictured, as I described. The Collins box primarily ensured an average modulation level and prevented audio levels from resulting in over modulating our signal. In these days, “processors”, especially voice processors can make anyone sound as desired. Virtually all voice particulars can be manipulated to achieve that end. Peewee Herman could be made to sound like Darth Vader…or, at least like James Earl Jones. Not so in those days. The only piece of voice manipulation equipment common in studios of that era, primarily in Rock stations, was an old box called the Symetrapeak (I think that’s the correct spelling). It had been learned, even then, in the 60’s, that those qualities that render a voice unique occur in the negative peaks, which can be observed if one watches a voice on an oscilloscope. The purpose of the Symetrapeak was to suppress the negative peaks such that they better matched their positive peak counterparts. If you’re old enough to remember 60’s Rock stations, and wondered why all the DJs sounded the same….that’s why. You can almost bet they were using a Symetrapeak. AM stations also used a level controller to avoid over modulation; it was called a Level-Devil. (That may have been its actual brand name…I don’t remember) The McMartin MPX (Stereo) Generator/ Monitor, new, and state of the art, at the time. It’s the blue box mounted directly above the Collins Audio Processor. It processed the stereo audio feed from the console, arriving after processing from the Collins Processor to generate the L+R and L-R signals, 19KHz pilot tone, etc. needed to feed up to the exciter in the transmitter. The Fairchild Turntables, you’ve heard me say unkind things about in other threads, but they were not my favorites, in spite of their unmatched figures-of- merit for Wow and Flutter. I noticed, on one of the DJ pages, another former WLRS DJ bad mouthing them because it was necessary to remove the platter from the cabinet and manually change the belt from one speed cam to another in order to play 45’s. I don’t know at what point they lost the formula….but that was never an issue during my time at WLRS. If one observes the pics of these turntables, as posted on the WLRS page here at LKYRadio, one can see the speed change knobs at the left side of the turntable. I acknowledge that, when the belt would fail and have to be replaced, it was difficult to thread the belt through the speed change mechanism, that mechanism could be bypassed, and less stress was, then, applied to the belt. Perhaps, they had stopped using the speed change function by the time he wrote that observation…..in which case, one WOULD have to remove the platter to change the speed. . Regards Dan
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Post by dbsteff on Oct 24, 2008 15:20:56 GMT -5
The PD at WLRS, Joe, is someone I had gotten to know pretty well over the last few months. He and I have exchanged phone calls and e-mails, etc. so imagine my surprise when an e-mail I had sent him today got kicked back at me.
I call the station to find out that he's no longer there....in fact they have NO air staff, I'm told and they have gone to automation.
Anyone got the straight dope on this???
Dan
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Post by dbsteff on Oct 24, 2008 6:37:28 GMT -5
I've asked elsewhere, but no one seems to know what became of Tim Goodwin beyond his tenure with the Louisville Public Library system.
I worked with Tim at WLRS back in the late 60's He helped me by doing me the favor of selecting an air shift which, in turn, allowed me to select one, which happened to be a more desirable shift, in order NOT to create a conflict with my class schedule. I've always been in his debt since. I hope life has been good to him. I don't know if he remained in broadcasting or moved into some other field.
One of the pictures John Quincy posted for me on the WLRS page is of Tim, circa 1968, at the board.
Regards
Dan
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