1942

WQMR, Washington, DC...History


LEE REYNOLDS speaking before the Stereo Sennheisers!
In this picture circa 1966-1967, Mr. Reynolds has his photo taken at a sharp angle looking down from the front left of the board.  It holds some details that I was delighted to see, especially the row of pushbuttons to start/stop cart tapes, even the monster Ampex open reel that can be seen hiding at the far right of the picture, is discussed more below.  Lee Reynolds?  Aging boomers will remember him from children's programs in the 50's and early 60's on WTTG-TV, most notably perhaps as Captain Tugg!  Mr. Reynolds spent a short time at WQMR/WGAY, then went to the Mutual Radio Network before becoming THE voice of WETA Television for a quarter-century!
  In the picture at the top is the multicolored (b&w here, sorry), backlit "control panel" that allowed the board operator to easily discern important information - I think the dark panel bottom right flashed for the telephone "ringing" - I think one was E.B.S., one for FM Transmitter On, one for AM Transmitter on (or was it off, which it was a lot since it was a daytimer).  To the right one of the two Fisher speakers, the GATES stereo board, a C&P Telephone (AT&T) 1A2 6-button key set (hey, no * or # keys - just a 10 digit keypad... how did they survive?) and the monstrous EMT Gotham turntables - fascinating devices (somewhere I have another picture from a hi-fi collector's site).  They used a plastic disc that rode atop a VERY heavy "capstan" - the sub-turntable weighed 30 pounds, I believe.  The platter on top of this massive capstan provided instant start and stop as it "slipped" with a solenoid pushing it from the side in the "off" position.  The commercials, ID's, harps, came from the very high quality stereo carts you see on top.  On the right is a picture of Larry Lambrose at the controls, cart tapes behind him, and the controls that appear to be above the tapes are really the top of a floor mounted cabinet that served as the transmitter controls (when it came time to turn off WQMR at sunset, I believe one cart was able to be "split" to AM only and the WQMR signoff was played, and once that finished he'd have to "push the button" on the transmitter remote control cabinet to put the AM transmitter at Sligo Golf Course to bed at sunset.  The signoff, done over the WQMR concerto, held the optimism that you either had an FM radio and were too dumb to have it turned on already, or now that WQMR was saying saynonara, you'd make the change (actually it was a clever way to remind the audience that the great albums of beautiful music could be heard on WGAY until midnight (then 24 hours a day after 1966)... (signoff played over AM only - 'At this time, WQMR's programming of quality music switches exclusively to WGAY, at 99.5 on the FM band...)  These great photos are vintage 1972.  If you look closely beneath the volume POTS on the board, there is a row of - well - buttons!  One very cool feature of this board was that the spots, harps, records, everything, could be tightly queued without reaching around, as these start/stop switches led to a relay rack then back to the equipment.  All this was designed, I believe, by Tom DeBray in 1965-66.  Robert points out the devices seen in the picture on the left at the top right are transmitter logging devices, and behind this door to the left were the teletypes for the rip 'n read headlines on the hour and a few minutes of news on the half-hour.
Jules Henry and Mike Handley allowed me to visit the studios to watch in fascinating the precision pace at which they could work with "live turntables" and load carts for spots and harps, flash edit rip 'n read news, answer the phone, and never (well, almost never) miss a beat.  Jules died a few years ago, and I recently heard from Mike Handley who lives in Iceland and now we have lost Mike Handley as well.    Mike gave the eulogies at the funerals of both Connie B. Gay and Bob Chandler.
(just to clarify, Bob Chandler did not pioneer the WQMR/WGAY format of beautiful music, that dates back to 1960 with Ed Winton, but when Ed left for sunny Florida, Bob Chandler, who joined the station in 1965, maintained the sophisticated sound of the beautiful music format that Ed had started, and all the changes he made to the "format" of the station were always gradually introduced, and carefully crafted for the listeners!)
At some point in the tower "at the top o' the World Building" became semi-symbolic as WGAY-FM hopped over to the WDCA/WETA/etc. tower on River Road; the signal got there via microwave from a dish mounted on the "then symbolic" tower.  I believe the transmitter remained for backup purposes, though it didn't help during one of the fires in the studio, rather WKYS loaned a tape deck or two and some studio space so Bob Chandler could get back on the air quickly.  I do remember vividly (but not THAT vividly because I don't know what year it was) awakening in shock hearing wonderful music and even the HARPS that had gone missing for several years.  I was pretty sure that I had lost my mind.  Somehow I was put through to a rather hyper Bob Chandler, see what in the heck was going on, and he told me of the fire and WKYS favor, and that he had grabbed some of those old 12-6am Sunday night/Monday morning tapes when the board was bypassed for maintenance and that was what I was hearing.   The WQMR calls are now in use by a Maryland Eastern Shore talk-formatted radio station.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Broadcast Pioneer, R Alan Campbell

My photo
Garza Garcia San Pedro, Nuevo Leon, Mexico
Former broadcasting announcer, radio programmer or manager radio stations in Baltimore, DC, Hawaii and Philadelphia.. Search: BELLAIR BROADCASTING. Member Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia.