Earl Dougherty had interesting stories about remote broadcasts that only got on the air because of a piece of tape and a wire, patching around bad parts to get a transmitter back on and much more. I wish I had written down some of his stories. His eyes lit up when he described in graphic detail how Yankee ingenuity was the only reason some broadcasts went on as planned, as far as the listening audience was concerned. The listener had no idea of the trials and tribulations that had occurred prior to a broadcast.
Kirby Allen, longtime voice of The Mexico Bulldogs, also had some very interesting tales about doing ballgame broadcasts way back. One I recall was about getting shocked from the microphone every time he touched it at one game, so in addition to figuring out how to do the game without holding the microphone, he also had to make sure his lips didn't touch the microphone. Kirby would tell stories like that and just laugh and laugh at it being amazing they survived some of those incidents.
Larry Weller had some strange stories regarding Earl Dougherty and Jerrel Shepherd. Separated by some 30+ miles, the two were rivals back in the 60s. Moberly had "red rover" remote vehicles, while Mexico had "red wagons". Moberly had Big K News (the K's from the AM and FM making a BIG K), Mexico had Double K News. Both men can be credited with some interesting achievements in small market radio - making money with events and broadcasts that had not been done before - some out of necessity and some out of glory.
Jerry Johnson had interesting stories, too. Like building the Bauer 1,000 watt AM transmitter from a kit in the 60s. The Bauer was still the backup AM transmitter in 1978 and frankly, sounded better than the Harris MW-1. But to build a radio station transmitter from a kit - it sounded like an amazing accomplishment.
Yes the stories were great - I only wish I could have dedicated time to record more of them "for posterity". The men involved could have written volumes of books about their adventures in small market broadcasting.
Which reminds me there were also women involved in some great small market TV and radio broadcasting in the 60s and beyond - women like Alvina Britz at Kirksville. I got to meet her once back in the 80s, but never got the chance to hear her interesting tales.
It's a side of radio that many people in the business now don't think about. It's a side of radio that many people at the time did not even know about - those great feats accomplished by small market broadcasters in the interest of serving the public interest and possibly making a buck or two.
Stories that will be forgotten all too soon because no one involved realized the significance of what they were doing at the time.
But I think that's human nature. To not realize the depth or magnitude of what you're involved in at the time and then getting too old or not having an interest in writing about it later on. And that's a shame.
So it goes.
Weller and I had some good times together. I remember his share of Jerrel Shepherd stories too. I also remember some horrendous lighting storms during the summer of 78. That MW-1 just didn't like those. Every the sky got cloudy, I put that Bauer on the air instead. There was also an old Western Electric museum piece transmitter sitting down there in the basement...what a beautiful piece of equipment!
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