|
|
The station's call letters weren't randomly issued, the first three stood for the owner's initials... W.P. Knorr. The setup back in the late 1950's was most unusual, as we not only broadcast music and standard commercial broadcast spots and PSA's on FM... but the same music, often with different announcements, was being broadcast to various stores, etc.
Everything was twin pots, one for FM and one for "elevator music" special announcements to stores. Sounds a bit confusing, but we quickly got used to it. And you can imagine the type of music we had to play! Every piece was predirected by the log. I was the late night guy, and took two thermoses of strong Cuban coffee to keep me awake.
After awhile, I learned to play my own progressive jazz records after midnight when the Knorrs were sleeping and we were through with the stores. Fortunately, I never got caught. Incidentially, the engineer who set up Knorr's station, who I only remember as "Mac," was also the chief engineer for WTUN.
Webmaster's comment: WPKM (then later WEZX) was a long-time fixture in Tampa Bay radio. In fact, beautiful music ruled the 104.7 position on the dial, until Q-105 came along...as explained in the next article...
 |
| Remember these? The Q-105 "Super Stickers" were a common sight during the station's reign as Tampa Bay's best... |
Anyway, our original PD, the guy who hired me (Bill Garcia) stayed nearly three years. He was fired, some guy he'd worked with at WRVQ Richmond, before he came to Tampa, took over as PD. I remember at the time, 1976 it was, Q105 was a CHR/Top 40. We played 60-to-70 percent currents, about 20-percent recurrents and the rest were oldies. But for some inexplicable reason, the new boss suddenly expanded our oldies library from about 500 songs, to well over a thousand. Q105 had great numbers and we were all worried he'd ruin us with all those "mid-chart" and "stiff" songs.
So, four of us six jocks banned together "to save Q105 from those stiffs" that the PD put in our oldies file. And since it was my idea and I had also been the music director under Bill Garcia, I did the deed. One evening, during my 6-10pm shift, I went through the oldies racks in the studio and put a small blue ballpoint pen "dot" on the 400 or so I thought should be taken out of rotation. Myself and the other three jocks simply saw the "dots" and didn't play those songs.
This lasted a few months at best, then the PD caught on and issued a memo for us to play all the songs and not just our favorites. So, after things settled down, I came up with another great idea: we'd get rid of five stiff oldies carts per day. I figured, if they went away a little at a time, the PD wouldn't notice. He didn't...for six months.
In case you're wondering what happened to those old carts, the truth can now be told: We had a drop ceiling in the studio, you know, those panels you could push up and see the "rafters." I put all the "stiffs" above one of the big panels, in the corner of the control room. About two years later, after I'd returned to Ohio, one of my friends who was still at Q105 called me with a really funny story. The chief engineer had to rewire part of the overhead wiring, pushed up several of the ceiling panels, and had about 200 carts come down on him. For about three years those carts were up there!
More from the webmaster: for an explanation as to the meaning behind "WRBQ," check out "What Do Those Call Letters Mean."
WPKM was owned by Fred Brewer before it became a rock outlet. Fred installed an automation system to do the playback, avoiding that inconvenience of having to hire talented people. No pots.. No adjustments.. and EVERYONE got just minimum wage. The station sat in the bowels of the "Bayshore Royal Hotel", which was rented out as an Airforce Barracks during the time I worked there. A wonderful situation for Fred... A hotel FULL of technical types sitting on his little 10KW ERP station. He was able to select a CE from that group.. Marcus Nusinov. (Hope I spelled his name right.. he's in Pinellas County now as best I can tell.) Another engineer there was named John Bremmerman. The transmitter? A century's old GE. (Well, early 50's anyhow..)
The original modulator was in such bad shape that they bought a Gates "solid statesman" replacement. (I saw the exciter in a scrap site a few years later..) Two or three quick hacks later, it was driving the "pre driver" in the GE... which drove a pair of 4-400's.. which then drove the pair of 5kw output tubes.. all to generate 3kw of transmitter output.
Fred's staff was a tad bizarre when I worked there. He hired his father as a manager, and his mother ran the station during the day. It was strictly a one body operation unless we were trying to fix something that was seriously broken. During one maintenance period, there were several failures in the transmitter, and we had to replace the 4-400's... A relay failed which prevented the transmitter from turning on.. and Marcus was feeling very frustrated because it had to be on the air, and they had hours of neutralizing to do before it would sound right, and not cook itself.
The relay? It was a little thing on the front wall of the transmitter between the final cabinet, and the drivers. There was almost no way to get to it without disassembling the entire frame, and it was built like a tank. The solution? Well, since it was "only" the interlock that killed things when you removed the back? Stick a tooth pick in it and lock it down. I'm not sure who came up with that one, but it was a work around that stayed in place until the station went dark.
Now for the neutralization. When I do it, it is a long and ugly process..
Play with it until it is close enough. Same when Marcus did it.. John, on
the other hand, had a magic touch. "hmmm let's see..."
One of the tales of strangeness: The solid transmission line ran up the side of the hotel from the first floor all the way up to the roof... And there was a run of Heliax that swung from the top of the straight run over to the bottom of the solid feed for the antenna. It was ALL old. It leaked. Like a sieve. The big nitrogen bottle had been turned off years before because it drained in a few hours. At any rate, it was a very toasty summer day. Temperatures in the high 90's, with the sun beating down on the dark colored feedline and heliax. And a BIG Florida summer thunderstorm came up from the east, and dumped about an inch of rain on the hotel in 15 minutes. Well, it hit the feedline which promptly cooled. The cooling air sucked in a few gallons of water from the surrounding roof and from the wall that the feed was bolted to.
Mrs. Brewer took her regular reading, and noticed that the meters were all screwed up. The plate voltage was normal. The plate current was pegged at 2 amps, and the "output" was 0.
She was not technical, and didn't understand what was going on. So she called her husband who noticed a strange sound on the air. Her instructions? Turn down the screen voltage until Marcus can get there. It was then 3:30, and he was due at 4. Being just a tad confused, she went to the front of the transmitter, and turned down the filament voltage.
All the way.
The current dropped, and the sound got dreadful. Marcus arrived. The rain had just stopped, but after killing the ignition on his bug, he heard some strange sounds. A hissing... He stepped out of the car, and surveyed the side of the building. At every joint in the solid coax, there was a jet of steam. Walking in, he noticed there was a LOT of heat radiating from the transmission line where it went into the transmitter. hsssssssssssssssssssssssss
He sked what was going on, and then looked at the metering. When he saw the filaments at 3 volts, he immediately cranked it back up to the appropriate value (6 whatever)... hHSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!
There was now the sound of a jet engine outside the building. He went back to the back of the transmitter, and opened the stopcock on the transmission line to see what would happen. Bad move. Almost was scalded to death. Several quarts of water escaped under great pressure.
After that, they bought an aquarium pump to "pressurize" the line.....
