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(04/23/25 4:00pm)
Just five days later, the Ikegami HL-35 would be back in the headlines. WIS-TV was in a race to be the first to use the camera dubbed the “Mini-Cam” with another SC Broadcaster live in a newscast. We had received our camera first and had it and all the required equipment ready to go, all except our Window-ledge Microwave system. Our vendor had a manufacturing blip and delayed the delivery of our system by a month or so. The other station would beat us until Joe Gill, our chief engineer, came up with a brilliant idea. We would use our RCA TVM-6 microwave that we use to carry the signal from the Carolina Coliseum for USC Basketball instead of the Window-ledge unit. The transmitter was in the prop storage area at the station, and the receiver was still up on the downtown tower, pointed southwest towards the Coliseum.
(04/16/25 4:00pm)
November 12, 1975, is the date that it all started to change.
(04/02/25 4:00pm)
When people find out that I worked at WIS, I often get asked if I have ever climbed their towers. The answer is yes, both of them; the 400’ self supporting triangular tower with a 30 ‘ base at the studio downtown and the 1,200’ Tall Tower at the transmitter site in Kershaw County just south of I-20. That tower was recently replaced by WIS’s new tall tower, which now supports their low-power TV station on channel 16 that carries Telemundo, WTES-LD. They were very different experiences, and the shorter tower was the most challenging.
(03/26/25 4:00pm)
In the summer of 1974, I was again working the overnight shift at WIS TV. My task that week was to wire in a new microphone panel in the new studio we were building. This studio would be used for larger productions such as a taping of a ballet by Sidney Palmer, one of our producer/directors, with performers from the Columbia City Ballet using a temporary “set” composed of some artfully placed curtains and columns.
(03/19/25 4:00pm)
In early 1973, Studio Engineering Supervisor Tom Bradford decided to split up the maintenance responsibilities in the studio. While each of us could repair anything that broke down during our regular shifts, each of us was assigned a set of equipment to manage overall. This was in preparation for the modernization and re-cabling of the entire studio plant, the construction of a new studio and control room, and the decommissioning of the old production Studio A, the home of our daily newscasts. Because of my radio experience, I was assigned the audio plant.
(03/06/25 10:59pm)
Up until the day I walked into WIS TV, doing a live broadcast was a solo act or at the most a two-person team; DJ and board operator or DJ and Newscaster. The same was true in television during network hours when the switcher and engineer handled the station breaks. But broadcasting a newscast required a much larger team back then. The team was headed by a director who pushed the buttons on the production switcher and called the shots. Then there was the audio operator who was responsible for the sound during the telecast. In the studio downstairs were three camera operators and a floor chief. In master control there was the air switcher operator, the video operator, and the video tape operator.
(02/26/25 5:00pm)
And The Walls Came Tumblin’ Down
(02/19/25 5:00pm)
When I walked into WIS-TV’s Studio Facilities I recognized two old friends, Master Control sported a Gates board almost identical to the one we had at WUSC. The other audio board down in the production suite was also an old friend of the Altec knockoff the WUSC had of the Western Electric 25-B console that we had at WCOS. Beyond that, everything was different. The biggest difference was that, unlike radio where in most cases the DJ ran his own board and had control of everything that was live, everything in television required a team.
(02/05/25 8:00pm)
When I was just a tyke, I had an interest in everything electronic. If I came across some abandoned electronic device, I’d take it apart to see the components. This was before the days of circuit boards and underneath the metal plates upon which the tubes were mounted, I discovered a jungle of wires, resistors, and capacitors. I traced those connectors from tube to capacitor to coil to the resistor to the transformer, wondering what all those colorful bands and arcane markings meant. The guy who ran the TV repair shop in my neighborhood gave me a copy of the same resistor color code chart that is in use today. He also gave me a chart for determining the values of capacitors and warned me that capacitors can hold a charge and “bite” you if you aren’t careful.
(01/29/25 5:00pm)
WCOS, like many Top 40 stations in small and medium-sized markets did not have a dedicated news department. Each DJ read the news at 5 minutes until the hour and a half past the hour that the Associated Press wire service provided via a teletype machine (TTY). At about 15 minutes before and after each hour, the DJ on duty would tear the latest news from the TTY and lay it on the top of the audio console in Master Control. The detailed news stories came across the wire just before we cleared it at 15 minutes until the hour. Headline news came across the wire just before we cleared it 15 minutes later. Most of the time the DJ would not have time to go over the wire copy before reading it live, a practice we called “Rip and Read”. Let’s just say that “Rip and Read” led to some interesting times on the air.
(01/22/25 5:00pm)
This chapter is about some radio gear that was commonly used in the 60s but is rarely seen in radio control rooms today. These machines were the bridge between reel-to-reel tape machines and vinyl records and the computer-based audio files we use today. We’ll take them in chronological order.
(01/16/25 11:00pm)
April 4, 1968, was a typical Thursday, but the world changed that day. I had distributed the paper copies of the WCOS Top 40, no longer the “Top 60 in Dixie” to the record and drug stores where they were ready to be picked up. I spent a few extra minutes talking shop with the wife of our newsman Mike Rast and told her that I would be giving him a ride home later that night. I had gone to the station to pick up the teletype paper box that held all the stuff I needed that night. Included in that collection was a copy of the headline news because Mike was going to be busy at 8:30 recording one of George Buck’s Jazzology Shows. I listened to the Joe Pyne talk show as I drove out to Doug’s and got ready to do my show.
(12/03/24 6:00pm)
In 1965, besides WUSC the USC operated Carrier Current station on 730, there were only 6 AM stations in Columbia; WIS – 560 (Middle of the Road), WCAY 620 (Country), WNOK 1230 (Top 40), WOIC 1320 (R&B), WCOS 1400 (Top 40) and WQXL 1470 (CountryPolitan.) Two of those; WCAY and WQXL were daytime only. There were 3 FM stations WCOS-FM at 97.9 (at the time) and WNOK-FM at 104.7. WCOS-FM ran a mostly automated Middle of the Road format in stereo and WNOK-FM did the same in mono with a subcarrier that was programmed with a format of all instrumental songs for local office buildings, in competition with Muzak. The third FM was a 10-watt WUSC-FM at 91.9 operated by the College of Journalism at the time. On January 17, 1977, the WUSC-AM station was shut down and the station’s programming moved to 91.9.
(11/13/24 5:00pm)
One of the hallmarks of Top 40 radio was getting the audience involved through contests, and boy, did we have contests at WCOS. But before you had contests you had to have prizes. The value of these prizes ran the gamut from “three records from the “WCOS grab bag” to a single prize of $1,000 that would be worth $8,200 today.
(11/06/24 5:00pm)
Old School Radio
(10/30/24 4:00pm)
The Nightbeat Show audience was a motley three groups, and I had to be careful to pay attention to all of them. There was the onsite audience, the customers sitting in their cars in the packed rows of teletrays. They were sending in their requests scribbled on pieces of paper, sometimes napkins with a border of mustard or ketchup. Then there was the mobile audience out there cruizin’, possibly at another drive in, even those out there at Gene’s Pig and Chick where WNOK, our competitor, was cranking out the same songs that we were at Doug’s. Finally, there was the at home audience, in their rooms cracking the books, doing homework while listening to the radio.
(10/23/24 4:00pm)
Like so many other drive-ins, Doug Broome's had its own eco-culture, and I soon became a part of it. The two largest groups were carhops and customers. Smaller groups were managers and bouncers, and finally, there was me, who at first didn’t fit into any of them.
(10/16/24 4:00pm)
In the decade after WW II the GIs came home and started their civilian lives. Automobiles were a big part of that and the “hot rod” and music culture caught so well in the film “American Graffiti” dominated the teen scene. Top 40 Radio was in the driver’s seat in more ways than one. More importantly, it was in the dashboard of nearly every car that was driven by teenagers. All over the country teenagers drove around listening to their radio. Gas was cheap and cruizin’ was the in thing! In the late 50s and early 60s, restaurateurs began cashing in on the cruizin’ phenomena by building and operating drive-in restaurants. Drive-in, to be clear was different from the drive-thru restaurants of today with the possible exception of the Sonic Drive-Ins that have tele-trays in addition to the drive-through common to other fast food operations.
(10/09/24 4:00pm)
In 1975 Kenny Vance (formerly of Jay & The Americans) and the Planotones released a song named “Looking For An Echo” in which they describe the search for the perfect natural echo. WCOS like many other Top 40 stations of the day featured an artificial reverb sound in order to sound more like a concert stage. According to Rick Sklar the legendary programmer for WABC Musicradio in New York, they placed a speaker at one end of a large mostly unused storage room and a microphone at the other end to achieve that sound. At WCOS, we used a three-spring Hammond Organ reverb unit to achieve ours. There was a box on the audio board table that contained two buttons, one of which rang a bell and the other enhanced the amount of reverb coming out of the unit.
(10/07/24 2:16pm)
To Paraphrase Dickens, “It was the worst of Dayparts, It was the best of Dayparts!” Typically broadcasters divide the day up into shifts called “dayparts.” They include “Morning Drive” (6 AM – 10 AM), “Middays” (10 AM – 2 PM), “Afternoon Drive” (2 PM – 7 PM), “Evenings” (7 PM – Midnight) and “Overnights” (Midnight – 6 AM.) The hours may vary slightly from station to station, but those 5 dayparts are usually how the 24-hour broadcast day is divided. During my career, I’ve had the opportunity to work with every one of them.
