Chapter 5
Meanwhile, other frustrated students unaware (or unimpressed) with Jerry’s efforts decided to start their own radio stations! With advancing technology came a store called “Allied” (a predecessor to Radio Shack). Allied sold “modules” that were low power AM and FM radio transmitters, powered by household batteries! Normally, these devices had limited usage because of low power output, low antenna, and only a few receivers within range.
In C’dale, low power broadcasting could reach thousands of listeners because conditions were unusual. First, enterprising students figured out how to increase the transmitting power of the modules. Also, in at least one case, the transmitter was on an upper floor of Schneider Tower, so there was a high antenna. Most important of all, there were a huge number of receivers within range. Schneider had 500 rooms and about 1000 residents. Just about each and every room had some kind of AM radio.
Starting in the late 60′s, various residents had attempted some form of pirate broadcasting. (The term originated from offshore transmitters in ships, situated beyond territorial limits of England). In C’dale, some pirate stations were not much more than a “play” radio setup, an extension of the turntable/microphone/amp/speaker that many of us fantasized with as kids. The pirate stations usually had erratic hours, undependable signals, and poor quality audio. Music selection was limited to the records that the “station owner” had on hand. One never knew if a particular station would be back on after breaks between quarters. While this was true grass roots radio, it could be argued that listeners were attracted mainly due to the complete lack of competition.
At first, the pirate stations might serve a few dorm rooms, or a floor. Gradually, this extended to a whole building, even groups of buildings. Thompson Point, a West Campus residence area, had at least one station serving most of the area. On the East Campus, there was WBHR, in Boomer, which served Boomer I, II, and III, along with adjacent areas in the East Campus. There were others, too, (such as WSEX, somewhere in Schneider, or was it somewhere on Wall Street?) about which little info is available.
WBHR started in early 1969. Jan T. Pasek had a homemade (tube), almost one watt FM transmitter. Ray Breddemann reports that Boomer residents were frustrated with KXOK’s lack of quality signal and programming. Jan, Ray, and a few others decided to pool their equipment, meet in the 3rd floor end lounge in Boomer II and put an antenna in the window.
The next fall, (69) WBHR secured some funding for equipment from the University Park Residence Hall Council. Ray reports that they filled a tire with cement and put it on the roof. They used 105.1. There was substantial staff turnover, and a political science major, Bill Bodine, took over. He decided the call letters should be changed to WISR. Future WIDB members Bill Tingley, Jeff Esposito, Jim Sheriffs, and Ray remained at WISR, which continued until the Spring of 70.
Ray reports that some radio pirates received threatening letters from the FCC around this time. This may have provided additional impetus for the pirate members to throw in with the new effort for a university wide student station. WBHR/WISR was only one of at least several pirates operating at the end of the 60′s in Carbondale.
The largest and best-organized pirate was WLTH. It was located in Schneider, in a hair-drying room. The main leader of this station was Chuck White. Dan Mordini was a major member. Part of the WLTH nucleus were first and second-year students Howie Karlin, Tom Scheithe, and Jim Hoffman. Later, Dan Sheldon (and “His Voice”) came on the scene. WLTH operated from 7pm-1am weekdays, until 4 am weekends.
They were a top-40 format.
Tom Scheithe reports that, as a freshman Schneider resident, he encountered Chuck White at a dorm meeting. Chuck decided to start a pirate station in Schneider. He placed an ad in the Daily Egyptian. The initial meeting featured Chuck, Tom, Howie, Dan Mordini, Larry Rolewick, and Phil Phergilli, who worked at WLTH, Gary, In. This prompted the guys to take WLTH as their call letters; Phil gave them copies of WLTH ready-made jingles.
They secured the 9th floor “hair washing room” in Schneider. Everyone contributed equipment. Tom’s job was to regularly visit Dillinger’s Wire, Salt & Eggs (near the railroad tracks) to secure empty egg cartons. These were put up on the walls & ceilings of the hair drying room for soundproofing.
Howie, Tom, Chuck and Jim were weaned on major-market radio. Chuck, Tom, and Jim wanted to emulate WLS and WCFL. Howie was from New York and he liked WABC, but he also liked WCFL which he could pick up in New York at night. WABC came in to C’dale at night. They would listen to these stations constantly. It was not the R-T professors, but these stations and their personnel (such as Larry Lujack, Cousin Brucie, and Jimmy P. Stagg) that were the teachers.
WLTH followed these stations’ examples. They had jingles, playable on a reel-to-reel tape deck. They had a playlist, as well as a weekly “survey” of the top 20 hits.
The survey was distributed to listeners. The playlist went to record companies, who then sent free records. The station had a “request line,” which was a dorm room phone that rang off the hook on some nights. They did some advertising, and gave away prizes during contests. WLTH broadcast on AM (1150) and FM (91.5). They were consistent in signal and programming, they had found a niche and struck a chord. Students were listening.
WLTH continued its broadcast schedule through the end of the 68-69 academic year, June, 1969. Jerry took all of this in. He liked the idea of student-initiated and student-run pirate radio, but he realized that it was relatively easy to assemble a couple of turntables, a microphone, maybe a tape deck, amp, and transmitter with batteries, and play a few records. The hard part came in with the high price of “legitimizing.” There had to be a better quality of equipment, space, staff organization, signal distribution, and (toughest of all) institutional recognition and support. Only this could officially employ university recourses, provide a “real” professional training ground, the best possible service to students, and the greatest synergy of student energy and talent to serve the most students. Just at the right time, Jerry had encountered the staffs at WLTH and WBHR. Rather than fueling any fires of competition, Jerry made friends and conveyed the message that the new station was open to everyone.
Jerry persevered in his efforts to create a student radio station. In November, the effort’s senate supporters moved ahead to insure more student control in the future station.
The Student Senate amended Jerry’s original proposal to provide that:
- “Faculty Supervisor” shall be changed to “Faculty Advisor”
- “Two members of the Student Senate” shall be changed to “Three Students appointed by the Student Senate”
- The Student Body President shall appoint the Faculty Advisor
- The Chair of the Board shall be elected by the board, and shall have only one vote
- If the Faculty Advisor disagrees with a board decision he may appeal it to the Student Conduct Review Board
These changes, approved November 13, 1968, completely diluted almost all aspects of faculty power at the board. The faculty representative was now an “advisor,” not “supervisor,” not automatically chairman, and could only have one vote. Moreover, he or she would now be appointed by a student, and could appeal board decisions only to students. These changes were proposed and approved, it is surmised, only after it was perceived that more student control would not be fatal to the plan. It is also an indication of rising student power.
Jerry moved ahead to get board members appointed. He developed a reasonable business relationship with Dean of Students Wilbur Moulton, who authorized a $3,000 “startup fund” for the effort. To this day, Jerry reports that Dean Moulton’s personal sympathies were unclear. Did he really support the students, or was he simply one of the few bureaucrats who took his job description seriously when it said “facilitate student development?” As early as December, 1968, Dean Moulton expressed his hope (in a memo to Jerry) “that the station begin operation before the end of the academic year.” This buoyed Jerry’s spirits, but it was a tad optimistic.
The Board of Directors of the (yet unnamed) “Student Radio Station” met for the first time on May 5, 1969. It had taken about six months to get enough members appointed and confirmed. At the first meeting, a proposed budget and funding request for the 69-70 academic year was approved. This was later approved by the Student Senate. In those days, all of the Student Senate Activity Fee annual budget allocations had to be approved by the SIU Board of Trustees.
This is the first record of the Board considering any student radio matters. It was merely a single item in a long laundry list of student clubs’ annual allocations. Yet at least one of the trustees reacted to the line item “Student Radio Station—$8,000.00.” The trustee, Harris Allen of Carmi, was concerned that this would “duplicate existing service–WSIU–and be a waste of money.” He sought to delete funding, which would have killed the project instantly. Even worse, he made a motion to table, i.e., put it off, for more study.
It was the same old arguments from the University Council days. But it was too late. After all of the years of study and bureaucratic limbo, no other trustee was willing to support further delay. Allen’s separate motions to delete and to table funding for a student radio station both died for lack of a second. Jerry had made it through the final administrative hoop. The Board of Trustees had considered the new radio station, approved its existence, found it eligible for annual funding, and had approved a full year’s funding for school year 69-70.
Jerry had completed the goal of acceptance and authorization by the general university bureaucracy. But this merely gave him license to fight for a share of university benefits. A station needed a space, remodeling, equipment, access to restricted university areas, publicity, staff leaders, staff, training for both, not to mention program material (like records). University funding helped, but it couldn’t buy everything that was needed. Jerry’s work was just starting.
Although the bureaucratic battle for official recognition was Jerry’s priority in 68-69, he realized that the next effort would be to assemble the nucleus and staff of the new radio station. Jerry did not neglect this. As early as fall of ’68, Jerry visited the pirate stations. He painted a vision of a new station: one with real equipment purchased with student activity funds, its own studio and offices, a CAMPUS-WIDE station operated only by STUDENTS. Jerry invited all of the pirate broadcasters to join the effort for the new station.
More than any other pirate, WLTH provided a significant contribution to the future station’s nucleus. WLTH Program Director Howie Karlin became program director of the new station. WLTH engineer Dan Mordini became chief engineer of the new station. These two were appointed members of the initial Student Radio Station Board of Directors. From WLTH also came Jim Hoffman and Tom Scheithe, who (respectively) became Music and Operations Directors of the new station. Dan Sheldon’s voice became the signature of the new station.
Tom Scheithe reports that , starting in spring, ’69, there was a growing hope and expectation that the “new station” would be on by the fall of ’69. When WLTH signed off for the summer in June, ’69, there was a consensus that all efforts would be channeled into the new station by fall.
Students returned to SIU in late September ’69 (remember, SIU was on quarters then; fall quarter started last week of September) to find that a station had been funded and recognized, but it had no equipment, no space, no records, and no real staff. Even though WLTH was no more, other pirates, such as WBHR-Boomer, continued. It was now up to Jerry and the other “nuclear” members to marshall the available resources and make a station.
Shortly after school resumed, the board met and elected Jerry, Howie and Dan as an Executive Committee to make certain decisions. One decision was to select the call letters of the new station. What happened next has become perhaps the most enduring mystery of the radio station, which has never been resolved to this day.
One night around halloween, 1969, Jerry, Howie and Dan were hanging around in the 9th floor end lounge at Schneider (close to the former site of the WLTH studios). This was the “Executive Committee” chosen by the Student Radio Station Board of Directors. They had to decide the call letters of the new station. When Jerry had submitted his original proposal 18 months before, he stated the call letters of the new station would be “WLBH.” This was based on the initials of Jerry’s girlfriend at the time the proposal was authored.
For many years, no one knew the reason why these call letters were changed. As Jerry’s efforts wended their way through the bureaucratic bowels of the university, the project was always called “Student Radio Station.” That was the name that the university gave it. It persists, in some ways, to this day. That’s still the name on the account, that was the name on the ballot in 1972, that was the name on the “sign” the university erected to show where the “Student Radio Station” was located. Imagine for a moment if the station was never known by any other name. The station ID would say “You’re tuned to the Student Radio Station.” Think what the logo might look like. The stationery. The business cards. The T-shirts. What would it be like to call a record rep, or a news source, when they ask your station call letters, you say “Student Radio Station.” If they call back, the phone gets answered “Student Radio Station.” How about listing it high on your resume, for that first job out of SIU?
The point is that the university had an attitude about student efforts. WSIU was the “University Broadcasting Service.” But WLBH immediately became the “Student Radio Station.” Jerry wisely let this pass at the time, as he figured postponing the ultimate decision would end up involving future recruits and gain more support. He was right. Since the Board of Directors had empowered the “Executive Committee,” (Howie, Jerry and Dan) to determine the call letters, the three of them ended up in the end lounge in 9th floor Schneider. None of the pirate call letters (WLTH, WBHR, WSDR, WSEX) were considered. This was to be a new station; something consistent with the new image of a campus wide station. They chose WIDB. For years, there has been speculation of the origin of the call letters. Jerry, and Howie claimed that they “could not divulge” why WIDB was chosen. When WIDB was in the “lower level” of Wright I, the prevailing dogma was that it stood for “We’re In Da Basement.” In the 15th Anniversary Reunion Shirt, designed by Brian Colon, other variations were suggested, including “Wild Irresponsible Drunken Buffoons,” and “We’ve Inspired Dedicated Broadcasters,” not to mention, “When In Doubt, Bullshit.”
Despite Jerry and Howie maintaining secrecy all these years, Dan Mordini, the third member of the group finally broke the silence. Dan disclosed: “I’m going to be anti-climactic, but WIDB stood for nothing more than ‘Inter-Dorm Broadcasting.’ I suggested it, Howie nodded, said it was easy to say. Jerry basically shrugged and said OK.” By the November, 1969 Board meeting, the new call letters were official. Now the station had recognition, an identity (call letters) money, a board of directors, and an embryonic operating nucleus. It had taken two years.
After two solid years of intense effort, Jerry had seen his proposal reach 80% of its goal. He had won recognition and de facto exclusivity from the university. Funding was secured. A nucleus of enthusiastic, competent staff heads had joined. There was an air of expectation; something was really going to happen. And yet WIDB had never broadcast any programs, never purchased any equipment, and was not located anywhere. It only existed as a university organization account, and as a Board of Directors. But once that happened, it remained only to purchase and install equipment that would operate effectively. The participants felt this phase was more in their control. Again, unanticipated problems developed in areas assumed to be easy.
First came the location. Jerry had always envisioned WIDB in the University Center (later renamed “Student Center”). At the time, the University Center Director was the legendary “Doc” Dougherty , who ruled that the University Center had no space available for the only university radio station funded by students to serve students. This author thanked him personally, years later. So, no University Center. Jerry and the other nuclear members had long been east campus-centric. Yes, Thompson Point, Evergreen Terrace and Southern Hills were important, and they were in the plans, but almost 70% of dorm residents lived in East Campus. WLTH and WBSR (and WISR) had been East Campus stations. Jerry knew that WIDB must deliver on its promise to be campus-wide. Yet, it was not required to be done all at once.
While it would have been ideal to locate WIDB in the center of campus, this was not possible, at least at first. Faced with the choice of one side of campus of the other, east was the obvious choice. So, in the fall of 69, Jerry went to see our old friend, Sam Rinella, Emperor of University Housing. Jerry knew that certain rooms in each of the East Campus dorm buildings were earmarked for “Student Activities.” Jerry was interested in getting space in Neely, Mae Smith or Schneider but Sam refused. Instead, he offered Jerry room 14 (Student Activity room in basement) of Boomer I or III. At the October, 1969 WIDB Board meeting, Jerry announced that he had accepted Sam’s offer. At the same meeting, Dan Mordini announced that after research, he had chosen WIDB’s frequency–600kHz. Thus in a few moments, the new station had a frequency and a location–or did it?
WIDB was to move into room 14 of Boomer III in January, 1970. But the residents of Boomer III got wind of this and protested. They posted threatening notes on the door of the empty dark room that was to be WIDB. Jerry was concerned about equipment that was stored there, so he Jerry removed the audio board, turntables, and speakers to his trailer. Of course, he had to hook it up to see if it worked. Meanwhile, Boomer opposition to WIDB continued. Residents signed a petition to prevent WIDB from moving in. Sam Rinella responded by suggesting WIDB move to Wright. Charlie Muren (Public Relations Director) wanted to confront the Boomer petitioners by letter, in a meeting, and by knocking on the residents’ doors. But it was already February, and Jerry wanted to move ahead. Once a space was accepted, walls had to be built before windows, doors, equipment, and wiring could be installed. Dickering about a location could take months. The decision was made to accept room 14 in Wright I. There was a request to occupy room 11 (temporary) as well, which was denied at that time. But the station now had a location!
Room 14 in Wright I was a medium sized, mostly rectangular room, about 700 square feet. It had three incandescent bulbs with translucent glass globes in the ceiling. It had eight windows, no air conditioning, and a water fountain. There were no rooms, no doors (except the front door) and no walls. Jerry entered room 14, February, 1970. He looked around at the empty space. He saw walls, glass, studios, offices, telephones, equipment, UPI machine, bulletin boards, desks, people, and lots of activity. Could he have envisioned the next successful 17 years WIDB would enjoy there, until it moved in March, 1987? Probably not. Jerry, Howie, Dan, Tom, Charlie and an ever-increasing cast who now included Jim Hoffman (as Music Director) and Woody Mosgers (as just another curious guy who showed up) were more concerned with building a station and starting to air programs–quickly. Within 60 days of first entering room 14, WIDB officially signed on.
This ranks as another “monumental early achievement.”
