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artmorris
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Posted: Mon Jul 14th, 2008 11:58 am |
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So, we were in Bolivar over the weekend, and some friends took us to lunch at the local Mexican restaurant.
It just happens to be in the former location of KYOO. That was certainly weird. They gutted the old building, so there's little of the old facility there. The front door is about all.
But, that was just weird. I spent several years in that old building. Now, you'd never know it was a radio station, except for the stub of a tower that still stands out back.
ARt
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Turner the burner
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| Joined: | Sat May 26th, 2007 |
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Posted: Tue Jul 15th, 2008 01:44 am |
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| Where is KYOO at these days and what format? Is it one of the Ken Meyer group?
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Biohazard
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| Joined: | Mon Feb 5th, 2007 |
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Posted: Tue Jul 15th, 2008 06:32 pm |
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| They are still located in Bolivar behind Bill Roberts Chevrolet. They are actually broadcasting from the old Senior Center. I don't believe they are affiliated with MeyerCom. They broadcast a News/Talk format. See http://www.kyooradio.com for more info!
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artmorris
Administrator
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Posted: Thu Jul 17th, 2008 12:29 pm |
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KYOO (formerly KBLR) was built by Bob Neathery back in the 60's. It's first studio was an oddly shaped (quanset hut) type building on the north side of Bolivar.
By the time I came along, the station was owned by Mel Pulley. The studios were downtown, about a block east of the square.
Since 1994, the station has been owned by Stephen & Ann Paris (Mel's daughter). A few years ago, they moved to the old senior center building, just north of Bill Roberts Chevrolet.
Originally, the station was 250 watts on 1130. An FM was built somewhere along the way , and was a class A on 106.3. Mel Pulley upgraded that FM to a C2, (freq changed to 105.9) and sold it to John Borders. It became KGBX. He subsequently built another FM, licensed to Halfway, MO on 99.1, and it became KYOO-FM.
KYOO-AM moved to 1200 in the mid 80's. Mel had been working on a 50,000 watt upgrade for the station, and eventually we actually built a 25,000 watt, 5-tower directional, daytime-only station. (That story is big enough to be a whole book of it's own). It was a horrible time to build a high-power AM station, and it couldn't pay for itself. The station was modified to 1,000 watts, and the 5-tower site was scrapped. It was great experience for me. I got to help construct a high-power directional AM. Too bad it was such a bad time for AM.
Art
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wsterrett
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| Joined: | Wed Mar 5th, 2008 |
| Location: | Houston, Texas USA |
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Posted: Sat Jul 19th, 2008 01:21 am |
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| Art, what did the directional pattern look like for KYOO during the 25kw directional days?
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artmorris
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Posted: Sat Jul 19th, 2008 02:44 am |
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I don't have a picture of it anymore, but it was a single lobe, about 60 degrees wide, pointing SE from N of Bolivar. Really good signal at Marshfield. But, almost nothing any other direction.
We got a lot of skywave calls in the early mornings from Florida. But, the point was to try to and put 5mv over Springfield. Best we had was about 3mv on the north side. Not enough to get through the noise.
The transmitter was a 25kw CCI, with a pair of Kay rotary phase convertors, since there was no 3-phase AC out there north of Bolivar. Larry Mitchell did most of the installation, and Pulley and I did all of the radial field readings.
Too bad it was such a bad time for AM radio. This was right before the explosion of talk radio. If he could have held on for another year, I think we might have been able to pull it off. If he had put the towers south of Bolivar, instead of 10 miles north, it might have been better.
There's a lot of 20-20 hindsite on that project.
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Jamie Turner
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Posted: Mon Jul 21st, 2008 04:52 pm |
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I'm sentimental about old radio facilities myself. I was excited when I had to go to KTTK in downtown Lebanon for some automation training 4 or 5 years ago. KTTK broadcasts from the original KLWT building (1948-1965) at 221 E. Commercial on the 2nd floor. Originally it was the Lebanon Daily Record on the first floor with KLWT on the second, both owned by the same company.
I didn't know what to expect as I walked up the 1930s dated cement stairs and opened the glass pane door to a 1950s lobby. The doors looked similar to those out of the Daily Planet or Dick Tracy. Every piece of formicha countertop was edged in chrome. The womens room door still had it's wooden "Womens" room sign intact with a vintage "KLWT" brand in the bottom right hand corner. The "Mens" sign now belongs to Jim Bohannon.
My memories of the studios overshadow the lobby. Down the hallway you'll find an elevated "Master Control Room". It didn't seem like much at first with the exception of the original acoustic paneling installed by RCA in 1947. Master Control was probably the size of the KGBX or KTTS studio and housed a large 45 rack in the back, a rackmount on the other side that featured remote transmitter control, CD jukeboxes for the station's Digilink system, and
in case of emergency...a vintage then-state of the art 1966 Carousel automation system. Not sure of the make or model, but it had a way to record and playback network news while recording. Hi-tech for 1966. Engineer Bob Moore told me where he bought that system. It seems as if it was from a radio station in Iowa or North MO. It was hardly used when KTTK launched in 1986.
On the cabinet that held the console, you also had 2 triple-deck cart
machines, 2 RE20 microphones, a vintage clock with KLWT's logo
in the center (circa 1962?), and liner cards. All of this sat in front of a large
plate-glass window. It was dark behind that window, I asked Mark
Hutton the OM what was on the other side. Boy did I find out!
We walked down 5 steps to yet another level. I had only seen
pictures of this kind of studio! A long, wide spaced-studio fit for
bands, live performances, hoedowns, etc. Mark said that
studio was built for KLWT by RCA in 1946 for live purposes. When we
were inside that studio, I noticed another studio to the left. Mark
said that was the announcer's studio in the KLWT days. It has since
been converted into digital production studio used to record
gospel groups, preachers, and more. There is an exit that leads to the
roof where the antennas and satellites sit.
KTTK is in the process of building a new location. I would hate to see that become something non-radio. KJEL is too big for that location and KCLQ has moved to Camdenton. The KTTK bldg seems to be in better shape than the "new" KLWT bldg on New Buffalo Road with it's tower.
Recently I had a chance to look at the old KICK building before it was sold to Nick Sibley, it however didn't have the upkeep that the KLWT building had. The KICK building was nothing more than a giant mold spore, infested with cigarette smoke, pee, mildew, rotten floors, and an occasional homless person found sleeping in the hallway.
Sibley is currently gutting the building to relocate his jingle company and I would love to see his accomplishments. The AM 1060 transmitter continues to function inside and will for another year or so.
I promise to head back to Lebanon and snap some photos of this retro studio. Maybe I should travel the ozarks on a quest to capture the "essence" of local radio stations and their history. That could be a blog. I know I'm a nerd.
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Turner the burner
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Posted: Wed Jul 23rd, 2008 05:50 pm |
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| Nice descriptive visual Jamie. I would love to see that place. I think Lebanon is a neat little town.
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