Radio World - April 8, 2009 - (Page 46) Radio World | radioworld.com OPINION April 8, 2009 Vol. 33, No. 9 April 8, 2009 N READER’S FORUMN Sellersville, Pa. The system, housed in an equipment rack, consisted of a cart machine tied to a timer. At the appointed times, the cart machine would play secondary tones triggering tiny, piano-like hammers that would strike miniature chimes inside a small chamber mounted above the cart machine. The sound inside the chamber was picked up and amplified into four massive PA horns installed in the steeple. The sound carried for miles across Mercer County, N.J., and Bucks County, Pa. Every day at noon and 6 p.m., the carillon would fire up and play a couple of popular Christian hymns, depending on what cart happened to be in rotation. The minister and his family lived in the manse next door to the church. My friend Robbie was one of the minister’s sons. As teens, we liked talking about stereo systems of the day, installing FM converters in cars and generally fiddling around with audio equipment. The carillon system had been up and running for several months when one long summer day we thought it would be clever to explore the irresistible technical prospects of broadcasting something a little more lively than church music. Geniuses that we thought we were, it didn’t take long to figure out all we had to do was substitute the output of the chimes with another audio source and we’d be up and running. Robbie sneaked his Teac cassette deck out of the house along with a few cables and adapters. In the back of the rack, we found the input to the carillon’s power amp, pulled the chime cable out and replaced it with the output of the Teac. As I recall, we popped in a tape of the Doobie Brothers song “Jesus Is Just Alright With Me,” figuring it would be apropos. Respecting the daily routine, we waited until noon for our first broadcast. At the top of the hour we held our breath while Robbie hit the playback button. To say it was loud is an understatement. Titusville and the surrounding area was rocking like never before. Fortunately, no one called the authorities — as was the case in Mr. Kegerreis’ story — and most folks were pretty good-humored about the whole thing. Alas, our foray into steeplecasting was great fun but predictably short-lived. John Grayson Vermillion, S.D. pains to operate realistically, keeping a careful program log. During the same period I answered phones for an all-night DJ on WERE(AM) on weekends. One day a member of the engineering staff tipped me that the station had an opening for a board operator. I applied, and copies of my log helped persuade the CE that I was for real. A 50-year career in radio followed. (Since my antenna was considerably shorter, I missed out on the visit from the FCC.) By the way, I believe the correct term for the device was “phono oscillator.” My recollection is that they were developed to allow a free-standing phonograph to be played through a nearby radio without a wired connection. Chuck Crouse Lancaster, Pa. E-mail: radioworld@nbmedia.com Web site: www.radioworld.com Telephone: (703) 852-4600 Business Fax: (703) 852-4582 Editorial Fax: (703) 852-4585 Radio From A Kit Just wanted to say thank you for Robert Kegerreis’ great story about “Bootleg 1610” (RW, Jan. 1). It brought back many memories about my first AM transmitter. I purchased it about 1971. Our Radio Shack was a small corner of a furniture store that had a few basics. For $3.95, I picked up P-Box Kit 28-103, a “wireless” AM microphone. Running via a 9V battery, you could get to a few radios in the house. We added an AC-to9V type of converter and a long wire and managed five or six blocks, playing Next Issue of Radio World April 24, 2009 Next Issue of Engineering Extra April 15, 2009 For address changes and subscription renewal, please visit radioworld.com and click on the “Subscription” button. To submit letters or story proposals, to request writer’s guidelines, or for other editorial matters, e-mail the editor at radioworld@nbmedia.com. —EDITORIAL STAFF— Paul J. McLane Editor in Chief, U.S. Leslie Stimson News Editor/Wash. Bureau Chief Brett Moss Gear & Technology Editor Thomas R. McGinley Technical Adviser Michael LeClair Technical Editor, RWEE John Bisset Contributing Editor Skip Pizzi Contributing Editor Alicia Zappier Contributing Editor (International) Rogelio Ocampo Latin America Editor in Chief Karina Gerardi Latin America Editor Brian Smith Managing Editor, Web Peter Finch Editorial Assistant, Milan —EDITORIAL CONTRIBUTORS— W.C. 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REPRINTS: For reprints call or write Caroline Freeland, 5285 Shawnee Rd., Ste. 100, Alexandria, VA 22312-2334; (703) 852-4600; Fax: (703) 852-4583, Copyright 2009 by NewBay Media, LLC. All rights reserved. the top 40 songs, some commercials we recorded off the TV and our input as DJs. We had a few listeners. The local stations called the FCC. We never got a visit, but years later I would work for those same stations, WMTE (AM)/WRRK(FM), Manistee, Mich. My friend from next door had a father taking a mail order electronics program, so he was a bit better on the tech side, while I was more the DJ type. Now almost 40 years later, I have just celebrated my 30th anniversary in radio. My neighbor friend went on to be a CE and took care of a radio-TV combo. I have the P-Kit still, minus the small crystal type mic, which we removed and went direct from a cassette recorder output. I have enclosed a couple of pictures of it. I have been a reader of Radio World since about 1981 and still read it cover to cover each time it arrives. Today, I too have been a casualty of downsizing and am on the net awaiting for the next LPFM window or an area station to become available. Thanks RW and Robert for the great piece. I plan on keeping it next to my PKit for a future trip down memory lane. Mike Shannon Owner The Oldieschannel.com/ “Shannon in the Morning and Deb” Bedford, Ind. Career Prep Thanks for giving space to Robert Kegerreis’ great story of his home-grown radio station. It must have resonated with many of your readers of a certain age, who built a little station in their bedrooms before beginning careers in “real” radio. I built the Knight kit from Allied Radio and ran station WJD (DJ backwards) from my home in a Cleveland suburb for a year in 1956–57. I operated from 4 until 11 p.m. every Monday, offering a variety of programming, which included live joins to a TV newscast and two half-hour dramas, tapped from a table radio and aired in real time. I took Steeplecasting What a delight to read Robert R. Kegerreis’ first-person account of his teenage introduction to broadcasting. His story took me back to my own adolescent misadventures of steeplerelated shenanigans at my church. Built in 1838, the First Presbyterian Church of Titusville, N.J., sits high on the banks of the Delaware River. In the 1970s, the church purchased an electro-mechanical carillon from the Schulmerich Bell Company of —Printed in the USA— that we are conducting at a local elementary school: “WBTN(AM) GOES TO SCHOOL: Where will our future broa http://www.radioworld.com http://www.radioworld.com http://www.radioworld.com http://www.radioworld.com http://www.myRWNews.com http://www.Oldieschannel.com/
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