Wow, I have one of those cards, showing the FM stations in the Detroit area in the early 1960s. Several “spots” were still not taken…WOMC (104.3) was the highest frequency station listed at the time. It even listed two 10 watt stations that were on the air then. WLDM was my dad’s favorite FM station in the ’60s.
I worked at WLDM part-time way back 1973 to 1975. I remember Harold Tanner (owner), Jack Alan, Bob Conger, Richard Kortjohn (music director), Bill Chappelle ( chief engineer), Gail McKnight, Ron Heller, etc.
Good people…..good tunes.
My friends and I used to visit WLDM from time to time. (At age 15, we got our first visit by sending them a pizza, then calling the station and asking if we could come visit.)
They were a very interesting station. They had a mono console, and when the started broadcasting stereo, they bolted a stereo fader to each side of the board for the turntables. The two or three Ampex reel-to-reel tape decks that they used for commercials, as well as the microphones, were still mono.
They had a self-supporting (Eiffel-tower style) tower, and to haul stuff up the tower, they had a cable with a hook that went over a pulley at the top, another pulley at the bottom, then to an old pickup truck that had had one wheel replaced with a cable drum.
The whole place had kind of a homebrew feel to it, but they did a good job of broadcasting.
I worked there from 1968-69 as Admin. Assistant. I answered the phone, WLDM, background music. It was the start of Music by Muzak. Piped music in offices by a tech/installation crew out of the station . Harold Tanner was a great boss and everyone that worked there were too.
Wow, I have one of those cards, showing the FM stations in the Detroit area in the early 1960s. Several “spots” were still not taken…WOMC (104.3) was the highest frequency station listed at the time. It even listed two 10 watt stations that were on the air then. WLDM was my dad’s favorite FM station in the ’60s.
I worked at WLDM part-time way back 1973 to 1975. I remember Harold Tanner (owner), Jack Alan, Bob Conger, Richard Kortjohn (music director), Bill Chappelle ( chief engineer), Gail McKnight, Ron Heller, etc.
Good people…..good tunes.
The chief engineer was Jerry stedley
My friends and I used to visit WLDM from time to time. (At age 15, we got our first visit by sending them a pizza, then calling the station and asking if we could come visit.)
They were a very interesting station. They had a mono console, and when the started broadcasting stereo, they bolted a stereo fader to each side of the board for the turntables. The two or three Ampex reel-to-reel tape decks that they used for commercials, as well as the microphones, were still mono.
They had a self-supporting (Eiffel-tower style) tower, and to haul stuff up the tower, they had a cable with a hook that went over a pulley at the top, another pulley at the bottom, then to an old pickup truck that had had one wheel replaced with a cable drum.
The whole place had kind of a homebrew feel to it, but they did a good job of broadcasting.
I worked there from 1968-69 as Admin. Assistant. I answered the phone, WLDM, background music. It was the start of Music by Muzak. Piped music in offices by a tech/installation crew out of the station . Harold Tanner was a great boss and everyone that worked there were too.