Welcome to the Central Illinois Radio Memories blog. It's been twenty years since I took my last walk out of the big barn two miles north of Mattoon, and with the recent news of the place falling apart, I thought it was time for us to recollect a bit. My story begins just after my 17th birthday when I left the pharmaceutical/soda jerk business and headed into the exciting world of radio at the 50,000 watt giant WLBH FM in Mattoon, Illinois. It would begin a multi-year stretch of both sheer-boredom coupled with some of the most hilarious and exciting stories of my life. That is where you come in. Along the way, I hope we can all chip in a few memories from the glory days of WLBH AM & FM. Here are a few triggers to get your mind spinning...
Editorial Commentary with Ray Livesay, President and General Manager of the Mattoon Broadcasting Company....
The Policy Book...
General Humorous stories dealing with homemade automation or the old man fixing stuff with a rubberband....
Jim's Hairpiece...or...the day he took off the rug (possibly the funniest moment I have ever had to endure without laughing to this day)
Interlude of Poetry
The John Doremus Show...
Is the SCA still playing
Just exactly what year was this production equipment manufactured.
Personalities and People I want to know about.
(A behind the music of such for the WLBH Alumni) Where are they now and have they had to go through any therapy because of Jim's hairpiece....
JRL II
Ken Woodell
Mike Bradd
Larry Oathout (I know where you are, but still want to hear from you)
Berg
Pete George (I'm just guessing is no longer with us)
Jack Horsely (A very nice man and always kind in our brief time together)
Sky Drysdale (A St. Louis Broadcast Center Graduate, he was cool in my book)
Jeff Owens (Jeff always described the FM as "Music for Dead People"
Bub
Darren Foley
Jerry Doll (More on Jerry at a later date. I owe him much gratitude)
Linda Kingery
Vickie Gard
Eric Otis
Brett (I can't remember your last name, but I accidentally got you fired)
...It was an accident. He had pre-recorded the 5:05 news and messed up in his intro uttering the word F**K. I cued the tape up to 3, 2, 1, without any warning of the messed up intro. It played and he was fired and I am very sorry to this day. No hard feelings..
*The guys that did all those Arthur games. How many times can you say Fatzbecker passes to Hershberger who pitches to Schrock.......
*Any of those sales people that lasted less than a month who's desks I used to pilfer through looking for clues to why they would ever take that job.
Jim McLean (The greatest chief engineer story teller ever)
*Every Lake Land radio student that found out what the "real world" was like...NOT NOT NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!
Larry Smith (I know where you are too, but we did have a few good stories to share)
*Anyone who ever had to host the trading post, or the Jazz on Record program of which I had the pleasure of doing both....
*Anyone who ever had to engineer a game in FM, while recording at least three games simultaneously in any of the other studios/production rooms
*Any female I might have possibly snuck into the old radio station and violated or corrupted in any way, shape or form.
*Anyone who had to read the weather to the "weather lady" who would relentlessly call always wanting the forecast read to her slowly and loudly. That woman owes me years of time back.....
That's just a few to get you started. If your era is a bit different than mine, do not fret. We can all appreciate the spirt of Jim's Hair, no matter what time frame it might be in....
I do want to pay homage to Mr. Livesay Sr. He was a definite radio pioneer and deserves respect for following a dream and carrying out his vision. Read more about the early WLBH history here.
I would hate to imagine what JRL would think if he could see the place now....
Quick Quiz....
1. How long did the top of the hour UPI news run? (Bonus - What UPI reporter in the mid to late 80's was at Capitol Hill)
2. What color was the remote button near the FM board to fade out of music? NEVER FADE OUT OF A VOCAL!!!!!! - Policy Book
3. What was the main telephone number coming in? (Anyone who hosted Trading Post has this fried into their memory forever)
That's all for now...
Posts
5 comments:
What about...
That's not good country!
The old man scratching out album tracks that he didn't like.
Jim's annoying way of clearing his throat every 3 seconds while he was arrogantly chewing your butt
Headphones that you were lucky if half of one ear worked...
WLBH memories...
Rick Berg spilling his "Kool Aid" into the brand new automation.
Bub's drawings - Linda Kingery has some od them - they are utterly priceless.
The time Berg had a shotgun in the studio for "protection".
Playing Catch in the parking lot.
Writing obituaries.
Eric Finley is a cop, Larry is a librarian, Paul is a preacher, Bub is still in radio, Berg is a car man, Pete George passed away but his nepwhe worked for me for a little while here at WEIU. Foley is living in Sullivan, Brett "F-Word" McKinley moved to the Peoria ear and got married. Larry Smith is CNN Headlines News. Mike Bradd is at EIU, Jack Ashmore (Arthur Knights) at EIU. Dave Kessinger??? Ken Woodell retired and spends time in Mattoon & Arizona. Jerry Doll - JADTAG! Oh the memories of that place. Kids today have no idea what WLBH was or is. Love this idea.
Jeff Owens
jeff@weiu.net
JO,
I remember the Kool-Aid like it was yesterday! HA! Did Berg ever own up to doing it? I remember those pegs being so sticky and gummed up, and nothing in that system ever worked exactly right ever again. Of all the places to spill a giant glass....
Classic!
Trying to get up and down the lane of the Plantation in the middle of winter without getting stuck. If you made it...you "got lucky". If you got stuck "you didn't get lucky".
It all started when Larry Oathout was on the FM one morning as I was getting the news ready. That morning, it was especially slick on the road in front of the station, and both of us had almost slid into the ditch trying to get to the station. Larry signed on the FM and said "Don't hit the brakes too hard or you may not get lucky".
I almost passed out laughing in the newsroom.
There are a million memories of the place. Some are for the therapist...but some are quite fun to look back on.
Bill
A Larry Oathout and Bill Page Moment
The winter of 95/96 was brutal. As most who worked at "The Torch" know, the long front lane would drift shut faster than anything.
Larry and I had to do sign on the next morning after Christmas 95. Snow was in the forecast, and Larry and I decided to camp out at the station, because we knew trying to get into that station during a snowstorm would be almost impossible to do early in the morning.
So we stayed out there the night before. The next morning, there had been an Ice storm, which had rained into holes in the heliax on the top 300 foot of the 525 foot FM tower, reducing it to only 10 percent of it's power. We went on the air with all the closings, and information we could possibly do.
The winter was relentless, every three days, another snow storm. An engineer came from Harris a few months later, in February. Snow had been drifting all afternoon. The guy tried to leave, and all of us went to the window to watch him try to make it up the lane....he didn't make it. JRL II handed him a shovel. After awhile, they decided to go help him push. JRLII couldn't get anyone to (or maybe was too cheap to have it cleared), and finally got him on his way.
After about three days, I had enough...and I was bound and determined along with Larry to get out of there. We both got stuck out there in the lane. (If I had a dollar for every time I got stuck in that lane, I would have been able to retire). Finally, after about 40 minutes of rocking and pushing, we were both able to leave.
The FM stayed at low power for three months, as the weather wouldn't break for the tower climbers to put new helix and antennas up on the tower. About that time, the AM transmitter (the original, as the 5KW Harris had died). So, we were a feeble beep on FM, covering maybe 2 miles, the AM, not too much better about 10 miles tops...depending on which way the wind blew. Antenna crews arrived, and a new transmitter arrived for the AM, and things were looking up. We were back to full 50,000 watts on FM with A/C, and 5KW with our nostalgia/talk full service format. Still getting stuck in our parking lot however, as snow would continue to fly every now and then. Water froze, keeping us without water for several days. But as things improved, Jim said "I think we finally turned the corner". About that time, a loud crash happened, as the water lines above the kitchen and above the false ceiling crashed in, when the water thawed, and water flew everywhere.
From one extreme to the other...we had two tornado nights, that lasted nearly 48 hours straight in 1996. Decatur got hit twice. We almost got it at the station too. I was on the air for quite a long time. I left for a brief time, to get something to eat, and on the way back, I heard Larry Oathout go on the air and say "We have a bulletin.....Stand By". Then the EBS.
We covered lots of breaking news and weather, had the station on the map, and listeners, as well as advertisers... It was a long haul. We had a full staff too...and were doing quite well. It's depressing to see however, how many challenges we overcame, and were doing successful...only now to see it with 1 1/2 employees, mildew and mold growing all over, and several studios not even in use due to rain damage, and rain falling into the roof that hasn't been repaired since the temporary antenna fell into it two years ago.
It was fun at the Plantation...despite getting stuck often (I got a 4 wheel drive after that), covering news stories 24/7, and getting advertisers and a good format on AM/FM, to see it in the way it is now.
Hopefully things will turn around.
Bill
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