Not too long ago (during 2007) a former UPS student that attended when I did found my page, and sent me the following pictures.  These would have been sometime between 1965 and 1968 -- Most likely 1966.   Anyway, a few memories from the "dorm" ..... (Todd Hall, to be exact)  Thanks to Spencer Bryant for sending these!

Must be somebody's birthday......   On the left is my roommate, Lee Kopelke.  In the back is John McGiffin.  The kid with the glasses is me, and cutting the cake is Dave Kinman.  And yes, that is a hand-grenade on the desk. 

This is me, pretending to study..........

A closer look at my "stuff" ..........

  The One-Dollar date ----

I was thinking the other day about how times have changed.  Now, I never did have to walk up-hill both ways to and from school in the snow, and all the various other trials and tribulations of the older generation, but, things WERE different. 

It was the summer of 1965, between my High School graduation, and heading for college that fall.  My girlfriend and I would often take in an afternoon movie, and then hit the fast-food spot near by, and the total cost of the movie and lunch was......   $0.99.  Yes, under a dollar....The movies were 25 cents, and at the fast-food spot, burgers were 15 cents each.  Fries, 9 cents, and drinks were a nickel.  So, two movie tickets (50 cents), two hamburgers (30 cents), a shared order of fries ( 9 cents) and two drinks (10 cents).   Do the math = Dinner and movie, 99 cents. 

Now, I will put this in perspective, a little.  At the time I was earning $ 1.25 an hour at my part-time job.  So, maybe not that much has changed.  A similar job today might pay around $10 per hour, and maybe, at the cheap theater, and a fast-food spot,  you might be able to do something similar for around an hour's wages, or about $10.00.  Food for thought, at least....

I was remembering years ago walking into the local radio station to sign on.  For those new folks out there, there used to be a time when most stations, even "full time" ones, signed off late at night, and then returned to the air around 6am.  What came to mind was the unique smell of a radio station.  This was not a bad smell.  You know the "new car" smell, the smell of a new house, the smell of the motel room when you first walk in, and so on.  Well, radio stations had a vey unique smell that no longer exists in today's facilities.  And the reason it no longer exists is that part of what made up this unique smell no longer exists.  For those of you that have been there, you will know exactly what I am talking about.  For those of you that have not, I can only say it is yet another piece of the romantic history of this industry that may be gone forever.

What made the unique radio smell?  I think it was a combination of the hot tubes, the smell from the old teletype machines, stale cigarettes, and coffee left on the burner forever.  There were no doubt other factors that were a part of it,  but those four were probably the main contributors.   

 And now, back to the picture part of my "Nostalgia" page ......

These are places I've worked or built.    While most are personally nostalgic my hope is they are also historically interesting.........     Enjoy.

                                                                                   

This is KSRA, Salmon, Idaho in 1963.  It was here I started my career in "real radio".  Those are Roberts reel-to-reels, and a Yard console.  No cart machines here!  All spots were live read or played from reel.  My next job was in Billings when I was senior in high school.  Check it out here.

An exterier view of KSRA also about 1963.

My opening page showed a view of the "new" KASY studio in 1969.   This was a year earlier in their older studios in a house in Auburn.

Another view inside the "old" KASY studios.

While in college, a group of us tried to get a campus station on the air.  We finally got the go-ahead from the administration, but no budget.  We started as a carrier-current station covering the campus, and a year or so after my graduation, it finally became a non-com FM.  It is still on the air as KUPS from the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma.  This was their first console.   While physically different, it was patterned after the Gates Yard.  I built it from scratch for the sum of about $100.  This was about 1967.

This is my family room in the mid 80's.  It was put together with radio station "throw-aways".  Console is a Gatesway.  Two of the tape machines on the left are Ampex 600's.  And yes, a Wollensak on the desk also.  I'm not sure what the third machine is next to the Ampex.  On the right is an RCA cart record/play and on the bottom is another cart machine, the make I don't recall a the moment.  It all worked, and it gave my kids a great place to play radio.  This studio was patterned after one I worked at in Billings, Montana (next pic)   [p.s. -- I have two possible identities on the bottom cart machine.  It has been suggested it is either a Telex or and Audi-cord.  The jury is still out.  If I find it among my many pieces I'll try to solve the mystery myself.

This is KBMY in Billings, Montana.  It has since been sold, moved, and call letters changed, but this is what it looked like in 1972, and it was the studio I "copied" when I assembled the one in my family room years later.

  Also KBMY, back in 1965.  Anyone remember the SPOT TAPE 101?  Look at the far right of the picture.....

A closer look at a SPOT TAPE 101.  It was a very inovative machine for its day.

 Again, 1965, showing the rest of the control room. 

This console was at KWEI in Weiser, Idaho.  It was retired sometime in the late 60's or early 70's.  It found a new home as a production console at KYET (Payette, Idaho with studios in Ontario, Oregon) sometime in the 70's.  This photo was taken at the KYET location.  It is an early Western Electric.  [Historical note -- The KYET call is no longer assigned to this station.  The frequency (1450) now is under the call sign KIOV.  It has moved many times since the 70's]

An "open" view of the above console.  This was taken while it was being cleaned up and installed as a production console.

It wouldn't be fair if I didn't bring us up to today.  This is one of the studios in the 6-station group owned by Journal Broadcast Group in Boise, Idaho where I  am currently  Engineering Manager for Radio.This particular studio is KRVB (The River).

Located in Weiser, Idaho this is the KWEI-AM building.  It was built in the '40's, and due to several floods during its life, it has suffered somewhat.  I always thought of it as a classic among radio studio buidlings.

Previously a mystery picture. It was taken at a station in Seattle in the late 60's.  It was 5 kw, country format,  and used a shunt-fed (unipole) self-supporting tower.    I took the pic because of the console -- it was built by the station engineer and was one of the first I had ever seen that used sliding instead of rotary pots.    The "guts" of the console were rack-mounted in the side of desk.  

Thanks to Clay Freinwald,  Bill Wolfenbarger, and Dave Hebert for helping identify this as the studio of KAYO.  It was at 1150 on the dial.   The KAYO call no longer is in Seattle.  The console was built by the late Tad Jones. Thanks guys!