This page is under construction.  And...  Testing ....

My first radio job was at KSRA in Salmon, Idaho.  I was 16 and had just completed my sophomore year in High School when I was hired in July of 1963.  I had been facinated by radio as long as I can remember, and was very excited when Salmon finally got a radio station in early 1959.  There is some controversy as to the exact time KSRA went on the air.  I remember it as being January 29, 1959.   It was a local "event", to be sure.  I was in the 6th grade and the teacher brought a radio to class so we could all listen to the initial sign-on and the fanfare that went with it.  The only problem was, she didn't know how to tune the radio, and we missed the first few minutes of the broadcast.  

Now back to the date --  On the wall at the station is a framed collage, including some early information stating it went on in February of 1959, and the 1969 and 1970 Broadcasting Yearbooks show March 1, 1959 as the start.  The FCC data base lists October 9, 1959.   Now, after saying all of that, I will use the following as the "real" sign on date.   After a few days of research I came up with this (and I accept the fact my memory was off by a month):

KSRA went on the air at noon February 27, 1959 with great fan fare, a special recorded greeting from Tennessee Ernie Ford followed by his rendition of "The River of No Return" and much local anticipation. Sound trucks with loud speakers traveled the town alerting residents of the grand event and everyone was tuned in at the appointed time. Prior to that day there was no radio reception in Salmon and as a result many residents were blasted out of their homes by volumes set for hearing far distant signals.

(Credit for the above paragraph goes to Leslie May Shumate -- The Shumates were co-founders of the station and I would consider this a reliable source.)

My job at KSRA lasted from July of 1963 to June of 1964 when a family move took me to Laurel, Montana.  Shortly thereafter I went to work for KBMY in Billings.  You can find my Billings radio memories on the KBMY page.

In the fall of '65 I left for Tacoma and the University of Puget Sound.  Various happenings while I was there are located elsewhere on this website.  But what is noteworth here is the summer of '66, I worked in the Salmon area for the Forest Service as a surveyor.  While in town a few times in July I joined the then current host (I do not recall his name at this time -- I hope at some point I can giver proper credit to the other voice) of my old radio program, PLATTER PLAYTIME, and some airchecks of some of those are presented here.  So far I have not found any airchecks of my first year on KSRA.

KSRA-66-01                     KSRA-66-02                             **

KSRA at the time was located in a modified mobile home next to the transmitter (it moved from it's original site downtown a year or so after going on the air) in the middle of a 4 acre lot on the edge of town.

....   More to come .....