From the WNIN Public Media Center in Downtown Evansville, I'm David James, and this is Two Main Street.

Remembering Evansville’s first radio station now off the air.

After more than a century of broadcasting and some a personal history now.

I landed my first job in broadcasting at 1280 WGBF, and that was more than 50 years ago.

I covered local news, I worked alongside J.C.

Kerlin and Marv Bates, both legends in local broadcasting.

I covered the Bull Island Rock Festival for NBC's Monitor Network and learned how to write for broadcast; You get right to the point, you short soundbites, and learn how to fill time on a slow news day.

Oh yes, and you can always talk about the weather.

I know that now.

Those skills serve me well as I move from radio to television.

At WFIE In a 41 year career as a news anchor.

So it was sad to hear that after 100 years of broadcasting, WGBF 1280 is now silent.

WGBF was Evansville’s first radio station dating back to the 1920s, operating out of ‘Fink's Furniture Store’ on Main Street.

Only 50W of power.

The call letters WGBF [Good-Byes-in-Furniture] Here to share their radio memories, are veteran broadcasters Randy Wheeler and Rob Calhoun.

Randy Wheeler was a news director at WGBF before becoming news director at WIKY, where he retired in 2015.

Randy is very active in the community, and is past president of the Indiana Associated Broadcasters.

Rob Calhoun has been in the radio world for more than 40 years, working in and around Evansville.

He currently manages TV stations owned by Three Sisters Broadcasting in Evansville, and has a morning show for Clay County Country in Flora, Illinois.

So welcome, guys to Two Main Street.

Good to be glad to be here.

Good to have you here.

And we're going to share some memories.

So did the silencing of WGBF come as a surprise in the radio business?

Who wants to tackle that first?

Kind of, sort of.

The problem is AM radio listening is falling off just to very minimal.

And that's everywhere, right?

Everywhere.

Okay.

There's a few survivors.

Is a good one in Cincinnati.

But essentially what happened was several factors.

Number one, the listenership wasn't there.

Also, they didn't own the property that the tower is set on out there on Morgan Avenue and Burkhart.

And there was a lot of push to get them out of there.

And it finally just got to the point of, okay, we've just done with it and move on.

So the towers are still sitting out there, so eventually they will come down and the building out there with the transmitter will come down to at some point.

But they still have an FM signal, right?

Yeah, 103, which is.

across from Kentucky.

Oh it is.

Yeah.

Oh, really?

Right.

I shoot across the state line.

Yeah.

So that surprised you, Randy, when GBF went off the air?

I know you used to work there.

Yeah, it disappointed me.

Really?

Yeah.

Because, you know, you have a certain equity.

You know, you've worked before.

You're still close to it, even though maybe you're competing radio station, but, you know, you go back to the memories of that radio station.

We'll be getting to that soon.

You know, getting into the 75 River City Rocker era.

Yes.

Well, becomes now part of the lost Evansville.

You know, it's one of those icons now gone.

Yeah.

So when did FM overtake AM?

1978 was the magic year.

Oh, really?

Yeah.

What had happened, FM had developed actually in the late 30s, and it sat there because nobody knew what to do with it.

The FCC said, okay, you either use it or lose it, and stations started doing something with it.

And that came out what they call underground programing, playing the album cuts.

And eventually the mainstream step moved over.

And by the late 70s, it was very apparent that AM was losing music listeners and it reinvented itself in talk radio.

But even that has kind of faded away with the aging of the audience.

Yeah, so it was a big difference.

There were stations.

The big anybody's into the radio thing was WABC in New York, you know, was the number one radio station in the country.

And magically, by five years later, they were out of business.

They went to talk.

Yeah.

Wow.

And a lot of stations that were big stations wound up fading to nothing because they just went and there was nothing else to do but talk.

And if you did talk on one station, that was it.

Well, the early AM stations were so powerful.

You can listen to stations all across the country.

Yes, WSM in Nashville, Grand Ole Opry, of course.

Yeah, Chicago stations were booming in.

And ironically, GBF at night had to restrict its signal because of that because the Am signals travel everywhere.

So it looks like well, when it was operating kind of like a three leaf clover.

So they had to protect the station in New Orleans and a few others.

So daytime is a circle.

Yeah.

And at nighttime they had to go into this pattern so you could like, drive and maybe drive through what they call a no and the station disappears.

Yeah.

1330 is worse in this town at night because you can't hear them on the east side.

So anyway I was kind of mentioning that.

Yeah FM was so unimportant.

Yes.

And the FCC was worried about the future of it.

So every seven years the station would have to come back and AM Station to get re-licensed.

They'd say, okay, you have to have an FM station too and you have to support that.

And let's go back to those first radio stations in the 1920s.

WGBF on the air.

I get I think the first thing it was like in 1924, 20.

I've heard that.

Yeah, it seems like it really started in 25, but they apparently got the license in 23, I guess.

And yeah, but back then, I understand only 1% of households owned a radio.

And I'm sure those were massive.

Oh, yeah.

Just gather around the radio time, you know, listen to the Lone Ranger, right?

So what were those early programs like, guys?

Oh, theater of the mind.

Exactly.

Yeah, they had to have programing, so they started coming up with things.

It was local, and then we started getting networks.

NBC was first, CBS and, you know, ABC and the other ones, mutual too, had The Lone Ranger.

So.

Yeah.

Right.

You guys got listen to radio as kids.

Oh, absolutely.

Yeah.

My crystal radio.

Oh, yeah.

Crystal radio connected to my bed springs as the antenna.

There you go.

So what early stations you listen to?

WGN in Chicago, WLS, because I was in southwest suburbs of Chicago.

And so those were the handy ones to get every once you get adventurous, you know, start moving around and say, well, I hear Minneapolis WCCO.

Yeah, yeah.

And the mystery of it too, just the mystery of radio is great stuff.

Now, of course, the in 1930s radios were in most homes and in the 40s and 50s the golden age of radio.

Yes.

Tell me about the golden age of radio, guys.

The shadow?

No.

Yeah.

Fibber McGee and Molly, you know, and Jack Benny and all that stuff And of course, a lot of those programs evolved into television, too.

Didn’t they?

Yeah.

Yeah.

It was.

What kind of changed?

Radio.

Right.

Right.

Okay.

And of course, they covered.

They had live concerts.

I know the even the networks had their own orchestras.

Yes, absolutely.

That was incredible.

And the War of the worlds, remember?

Oh, yeah.

Orson Welles.

Right.

Yeah.

And there was a studio orchestra that kept on coming in, and the microphone studio orchestra would come in in between the little soundbites that, you know, Orson Welles was doing.

Yeah.

And, yeah, they had their own audience there on the orchestra right there.

They said that the War of the Worlds, was that most people were listening to Charlie McCarthy, and they got tired and went over to CBS, and they didn't hear the disclaimer.

They just heard Martians attacking New Jersey.

And yeah, you know, and of course, that was that caused a big furor afterwards.

Yeah.

The fake broadcast and people were were an uproar about that.

Yeah.

It caused the panic, the power of radio and the imagination.

That's right.

And the FCC stepped in and said, hold on now.

You know you can't do this anymore.

Of course, the rest of ratings were incredible.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And the publicity?

Yeah.

Speaking of ratings.

Yeah.

How do they.

They determine ratings now in radio.

It involves a dart board and a dart.

Yeah.

Actually, what we do in this market, a thousand diaries go out.

Oh, diaries.

So go out.

Oh, yes.

This is okay.

It is 2026, and we're still doing diaries now.

Major markets do it differently.

But what it is about, like I said, about 1000 people get a little diary and they write down what they listen to, which is kind of a miracle.

You have to remember what you do.

So it's really more of a popularity contest more than anything else.

So as long as you've got a long standing brand like let's say, wiki, it's always going to do well unless they do something.

Really.

So do we give you like, a dollar or something to do that?

$1.

$1.

Yeah.

For more time in a book.

And the interesting thing is, after I retired, I actually received a radio diary.

Did you know?

I thought, wow.

So I found out how people really approached that at the end of the week, it said down and say, oh, I gotta do the diary.

Okay, listen to that.

I think maybe that I've never heard of that.

Right.

Yeah.

Well, I posted on my Facebook page.

But when we talk about ratings, I said, I'm just hoping one day that tiny, huge returns to number one on the ratings.

Absolutely.

He's been dead for 40 years.

But Rose.

Oh my gosh.

Rosie.

Rosie.

Radio above.

Farmer's daughter.

It was.

Yeah.

Downtown Evansville.

Yeah.

Moved to the hill.

I've been around a while to.

Guys.

I'll tell you.

Okay.

Now?

Of course, WGBF 1280.

We're talking about its demise.

It started in a furniture store, which was 37.

Brass footsteps from Maine in Downtown Evansville.

Buying the street.

Yeah.

That's right.

Fink's furniture opened in 1902.

The station was founded by L.B.

Fink and his son, Harold.

The call letters to sell furniture, of course.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And that was an advertising ploy.

Really?

Opponents said we've got bum furniture.

Actually, they issued the quarter sequentially, but they saw those callers coming up and say we want them.

Okay.

That was.

Yeah.

So they worked out for it or we got big feet.

The other one I've been told.

Well, that's a good one too.

Now the one was where God broadcast forever.

And that was tied into the.

Yeah.

It was coming to me at three in the morning.

I'll call you.

And the first broadcast I was December 26th, 1924.

Of course, that might be debated.

I don't know anybody is going to challenge that, I don't know.

It was sometime in the 20s.

We'll leave it.

Yeah.

There we go.

And 1928 Evansville on the air took over operation of WGBF boost the power up to 500, then 1000W.

Wow.

They go, I guess outside the county.

Maybe then.

Yeah.

They moved operations to the 600 block of main and WGBF became affiliated with the national broadcasting companies, Red and Blue Networks.

What are the red and blue networks?

Red was the main network.

Blue, if I remember it became blue, became ABC.

But the blue was more of an arts entertainment network.

So the mainstream was red.

Blue was like the secondary.

Yeah, the theater of the air was really on the blue net.

Yes.

Yeah.

Theater of the air?

Yeah.

That was all the exciting programs, right?

Serials.

Okay.

Evansville on the air.

Put WEOA which stands for Evansville On the Air in 1936.

And that was affiliated with CBS, the Columbia Broadcasting System.

So we had NBC and CBS in Evansville.

Then you're seeing the same frequency.

I know frequencies.

1285 yeah, it was 1400 was on.

It was okay.

Yeah.

That was before Rosie.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So they had a monopoly there?

They did.

And then the FCC said in the 40s.

You can't do that.

And now what happened?

They are.

So the station moves a couple of times.

Yeah.

The big fire in the 1950s.

Was it somewhere in that area?

I mean, 60s?

Yeah.

But still.

Yeah.

Burned down the station?

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think it was 60s, I think 60s.

Okay.

Yeah.

And that was.

Was it on Diamond Avenue?

Yes, it was diamond in Kentucky.

Wow.

And then, of course, then they moved to Washington Avenue across from Ascension Saint Mary's now.

Yeah.

And that's where I worked at WGBF.

Yeah.

And I remember they had, like, a dental lab.

They did the building to which I thought that was a bizarre combination.

Yeah.

You walked in the door and the strange smell, and you thought, oh, okay, they're drilling teeth down there.

You know, and I think sometimes interfere with a signal to pick up strange static.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's what it was.

It was.

It's worth noting, especially after the crazy times in the 70s at that location as a daycare center today.

So.

Oh, that's.

Yeah.

That's interesting.

It became one in 1975, actually.

So when did it go?

What happened after that?

Moved from Washington Avenue.

Well, they continued to as Robbins said, the ratings were not fantastic.

The down down down, down, down.

And a fellow by the name of Vernon Nulty up at Rockford who owned Rock.

And another gentleman from WJBC in Bloomington, Illinois, came in and bought the radio station in 75.

And they sent a little team of us down here to decide on format and things like that.

We went around and did our due diligence and use that term back then.

But, you know, we monitored the market a lot and talked to a lot of people and said, you know, what does this radio market really need?

And WGN was doing rock and roll at that time, but not as well as could be done.

And so we decided there was a vulnerability there.

And let's go for it.

Let's go ahead and do rock and roll.

And so we kicked off the format by bringing in Wolfman Jack.

It was a huge party at Funchess.

And then Wolfman Jack you know wavering back and forth a little bit.

Went over to WGBF and we threw on the microphone.

That's the first thing they heard as far as rock n roll radio.

Hey there's Wolfman baby.

Where's my monitor?

Yeah.

Right.

So did you would you shepherd him around town, Randy?

Were you in charge of Wolfman Jack?

I followed him around, more or less.

Yeah.

Yeah, there were several of us moved around.

We had a nice meal at Funchess and then came over to WGBF and showed him the studios, and he seemed duly impressed.

You know, we had gussied up pretty much.

And then he sat down in the big microphone and threw it on.

And hey, we're rock n roll, baby.

What were some of the first tunes that he played?

Oh, I can't remember.

What the first one do you?

I'm guessing some kind of an oldies?

Probably.

He's really.

Yeah, probably.

Yeah.

So he did a lot of banter between then.

He does.

He did.

He earned his keep then.

Yes he did.

And launched the rocker.

He did.

Wow.

That's great.

And to put it in perspective, when GBF in the 1974 ratings, GBF I think had a six share, 12 plus had a 25 share among radio listeners.

Three years later, it flip flopped and JPS was at a point six.

The like the Princeton stations were beating them.

Yeah.

And then they had to do the changes and they kind of figured it out.

And then was it country and then they went religion as VI.

So you went from owning the market to I mean, just amazing what what what what happened?

Changing formats.

Got it.

Wow.

Yeah.

My guests are Randy Wheeler and Rob Calhoun, each with a long career in broadcasting.

We are remembering Evansville’s first radio station, 1280.

Now off the air.

After more than a century of providing news and entertainment in the Tri-State.

Now, before we turn back the dial to remember some of the personalities on over the years.

Let's learn more about my guests and their radio journey.

Randy, let's start with you.

Where did you grow up?

Your first radio job.

First radio job?

I was a sophomore in high school.

That was in Joliet, Illinois at WJOL.

I lived near Joliet between Joliet and Chicago Heights on Lincoln Highway route 30.

WJOL.

JOL And what happened was that-- It was an AM station 1340.

And this thing called rock n roll was just starting to be noticed.

And the station decided, you know, we probably should be doing that, but none of the DJs there wanted to dirty their hands with it.

And so they are-- What were they playing?

What we called M-O-R [Middle Of the Road] You know, when we came here.

Okay.

Yeah.

Inoffensive.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Background music?

Kind of.

Yeah.

You know, Lawrence Welk and Rosemary Clooney and.

Okay.

That kind of oaks.

Yes.

And so they decided, okay, there are five area high schools in this area, and we'll have a DJ from each of the high schools, a DJ from them sort of come in and they will announce the records as they're being played.

So one of their DJs actually spun the records, and we announced the records.

And I had Thursday night for three years, sophomore, junior, senior in high school.

And from there I went to NIU Northern Illinois University.

And in about a year, I was the station manager for WNIU, the FM station, in DeKalb, Illinois.

I did that for a while, and then WLC, which was the DeKalb Commercial Radio station, gave me a call and they said, hey, we'd like you to come over here and start doing news because I was a journalism major.

So I went over there and started doing news.

And I also then ended up doing a early morning show, which was fun.

So I had my time as DJ back.

I did that for not terribly long and WRRR “WERRRREEE!!

!” in Rockford, Illinois, called me and said, hey, we've been listening to you, kid.

You want to come up here and try out?

So I went up and try it out, and I worked there for about five years.

And then WROK in Rockford.

The competitor called me who I was doing afternoon news, and they called our afternoon DJ, and we didn't know that they were calling both of us.

So news director was talking to me, and the program director was talking to this other guy, Mark Larson.

And all of a sudden it was announced that we were going to do an afternoon shift from the east side of Rockford to the west side.

Their DJ and our news guy are coming over here, and city said, wow, okay.

That's different.

So I was there for a few years, and then Vern Dolt bought WGBF and came down here, and the rest is history.

Wow.

Yeah.

So, okay.

Short story.

Yeah.

So, Rob Calhoun, where did you grow up?

I grew up in Lexington, Kentucky.

My first job in radio, actually was in Jenkins, Kentucky, at WYFX radio, which was owned by the cousin of buddy cancer, Buddy Scott.

Okay, well, connection there.

That's where I got the bug.

I later worked at WVLK Lexington full serv We basically invented sports coverage with UK, and also I was at EKU.

I worked at WEKU, did everything from news to on air.

You know, I had to learn how to pronounce the classical names.

And especially when you're back.

Timing.

Okay.

Now.

Okay, finally, something I can pronounce your time to news.

After that, I wound up in Owensboro working at WVJS, which was at the time of what they call a full service.

Kind of like what WIKY was, right?

And what WIKY is today and was there until they ended.

And then I worked at another station.

Wasn't a fun time.

I got back in radio at WSTO and was there for its collapse about 30 years ago, which was depressing.

Did you work with Joe Utley?

Yes I did.

Yes I did.

I have lunch with him once a month.

We have a kind of a kind of like the moldy Microphone club over here.

They have one over there with Jim Park, Carl Davis, who worked with Randy and myself.

So we just sit there and Jim Parr, too.

So we just sit there and talk.

Joel Utley, of course, the longtime radio voice of the Kentucky Wesleyan Panthers.

Yes, he's an icon to there's an icon, Tri-State broadcasting and quite a gentleman too.

So excellent gentleman.

So how did you get over to Evansville, then?

Okay, well, I also did audiovisual work for the executive in Owensboro.

I worked at the Bluegrass Museum, and I started working part time at WIKY.

I just decided I wanted to do it again, so I was working there part time for a couple of years, doing a lot of filling out in the afternoon show because my program director didn't show up to work.

I know he's out on the market.

Don't worry.

Yeah.

And then I wound up being full time and just promotions manager, too.

Yeah.

So it's promotions and it just vagabonds.

Yeah, I leave them in shambles and I do everything.

I was there and things were not working out, so I got out of radio and went into another thing.

And then I got back into radio at a station down in Morganfield.

And that was not a good idea.

And I worked for another owner and that, again, was another bad idea.

I worked for LPI, which is a company that sells church bulletin ads and actually did well with that until my sales dried up.

Then I got back into radio, actually kind of getting to this point I got with Clay County Country when I was in Flora, Illinois, and it's a station owned by a farmer in Mount Carmel who has no intention of buying all the radio stations.

So we're just a small town radio station, and they started a second station.

So I've been involved with that for the last ten years, and I do it from my home on the West Side.

I have everything in front of me, and just like what I do, I play Waylon and Merle Haggard records and have fun.

Willy too.

You Got to be?

Yeah.

That's right.

So what about Three Sisters Broadcasting?

Yeah, that's my other gig.

Yeah, that is John Dunn's TV company.

Of course, Dunn is involved with hospitality, with hotels, but he was a long time broadcaster.

So he has a couple of TV stations, which I manage.

So one of which is Antenna TV.

Have you seen that on cable?

That's us.

And then the other one is Telemundo, which is one we write.

So I've been doing that for five years.

So I have control of that from the house.

So you know, occasionally I got to run to the transmitter site, which is actually on the same site as WNIN Oh, okay, a long drive.

Yeah.

30 minutes.

Seems like two hours going out the hills area or is it Rolling Hills Country Club.

Oh, rolling.

That's out there.

Pills are out there.

It's about south of Booneville.

Oh, I thought it was on the other side of the river.

No one's on this side of the river.

Yeah, it's on this side.

Okay.

Yeah, our tower is the shorter.

The tall tower is channel nine and 88.3 So I do that and a few other things, but it's just something to do.

It's in your blood, though.

I've always said there are actually just 500 hard line radio broadcasters in the United States.

They just move around.

And Rob is ten of them.

Oh thank you.

Okay, your first day's on the air.

Oh, wow.

How did that go, guys?

Gosh.

Was smooth.

Was it or was it?

Were you terrified?

Were you just.

Pretty much.

Yeah.

Pretty much terrified looking at all those knobs and switches and things.

Did somebody tell you how to do it or do you have to figure it out?

I had to figure it out.

Me too.

You're on.

They'll say take it away.

Right?

Yeah.

They said here, this is a gates board, you know, which was the board.

You know, eight channels, eight pots, as we call them.

Yes.

Potentiometers turning up and down, you know, records and microphones and all that and switches.

And I said, here it is.

Go for it.

Now, did you have to have a broadcast license back then?

Not just being on the air, though.

No, but because the fact that I was the first guy in the building turning on the transmitter, I had to have a class two license.

Okay.

Yeah.

Alright.

Okay, I bring that up because when I worked at bouquet, we had transmitter engineers.

So whenever I had somebody tell me you had to have a license to be on the air.

No you don't.

That's fancy.

Yes.

Yeah, yeah.

You had a nice little house out there with the FM automation, and you just.

I was a transmitter engineer out there.

It was easy.

You just gotta make sure it's on the air.

So what about Rob when you first got in front of the microphone?

Oh my goodness.

My favorite I had no just like what Randy we talked about, there was no real training.

So they decided that they didn't need a news person on Sunday afternoon.

So you're going to do it, Now it's not just reading.

Mind you.

I'm having to back time into network news.

Oh, no pressure.

And of course, I sounded like, well, you would imagine on the air because you don't want any dead air.

Of course, that's the place you're looking up and you're trying to work.

You know, as you you know, all of us are aware you have to operate on three different levels.

Read the copy, read ahead of it.

Plus, you got to be cognizant of what's around you like the time.

So and I'm looking at it.

Oh okay I got better at it.

But that was that.

And just it was, you know nervous at first.

But I think you still get a little bit of butterflies when doing it.

Yeah.

Well even today I mean, you know, prepping and everything.

Oh, yeah.

Well, I know my first day on the air at Channel 14, I was doing sports and I didn't.

I knew nothing about local sports because Mike Blake at the time, his his wife was having their first child.

So he was at the hospital and my first day of job and they said, well, Mike's not here.

So you're doing sports tonight.

So my first day they throw me on the air doing sports.

So.

But that's how you learn.

Sure.

That's right.

You didn't have time to really think about it.

You just.

Okay, you know, it's 6:00 or time to go in the air.

Yeah, you got to do it.

So that's.

I guess that's the excitement, though, of this business.

That's the dopamine effect.

It is.

Yeah, it really is.

Wow.

Okay.

Rob talked about your career.

Yes.

Now let's talk about the the enduring qualities of radio.

First of all.

Right.

It's portable.

Yeah.

You know.

My gosh.

You're in your car or you whatever, you know, in your ear everywhere.

Six transistor radios.

Yeah.

You're on the air, bud.

I know it's amazing.

And it's it's it's free.

Of course.

Yeah.

It's adaptable.

Changing technologies now.

Smart speakers.

I mean, my gosh, it's everywhere.

Yeah.

And it's inclusive.

All audiences are welcome.

Absolutely.

And that's why it's endured.

Now radio personalities on WGBF.

A lot of folks don't remember Marv Bates, of course.

Yeah.

Who did the all the Aces games and and the triplets.

That was art form to be, to be sure.

Yeah.

When he recreated the baseball games, it was amazing.

The triplets.

And he was on, I think, the Tomorrow Show with Tom Snyder.

Yeah.

Had him as a guest, and he explained how he did that, and I watched him at work.

He had little floppy disks, right, with sounds on there.

Magnetic floppy.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Remember those things?

Floppy disk.

Yeah.

And somebody saying popcorn.

Popcorn.

You know, and then the crack of the bat and the people cheering.

Yeah.

And he would get a like a ticker or something.

Yeah.

His wife would run information from the ticker down the long hallway of WGBF into the studio and lay their stuff down in front of him, and he would take a look at that and recreate the baseball game right before your ears.

Amazing.

Yeah.

It was, it was.

I don't know how he did it, I don't know.

And, you know, it didn't sound bad at all.

You know, you never knew NBC with Joe Garagiola came in and did a special on him doing a game.

And as he was doing the game, something got in the way of that.

And that was the Vietnam War came to an end.

And so I got one of those rare.

Ding ding ding, ten bells.

And I went running into the studio and a producer stopped me and said, hold on.

We're doing a show here.

And I said, well, I'm doing a show here, too.

The Vietnam War just ended.

We got to get it done.

And Joe Garagiola said, yeah, go ahead.

Let's hear it.

So I was on NBC announcing the end of the Vietnam War from the AP wire.

Oh, wow.

So you got to be on NBC and you got to be an NBC.

Yeah.

Yeah, we both have our moments on the network, right?

That's right.

Now.

Were you at WGBF, Randy, when the UV plane crash?

Absolutely.

Yes.

Okay.

One of the worst moments of my life.

And you had a broadcast that Marv Bates was on that plane.

Yeah.

Well, Eddie came in and told me.

She said, Randy, the family's all know.

Now you can announce it that it was the U of E. Up to that point, we held back on the information.

Yeah, I know, I was on the air, too.

We held back to.

Because you don't want to put something on the air like that.

My gosh.

I was so paranoid.

Everybody kept saying it was UE and UE and I said, well, don't have any official word.

We're not going to go with it.

You know, I don't want.

I don't want to go.

Wasn’t there an issue that the plane was delayed?

So many people thought that it wasn't the plane.

Yeah.

Was it already taken off?

And it was already in Murfreesboro where it was going?

Yeah.

Right.

My goodness.

So you were.

You were working there?

Yeah.

Yeah, I anchored that well.

Yeah.

Of course, you know, Marv is revered.

Definitely.

Yeah.

Now, of course, we talked about J.C.

Curlin.

There was John Story.

Remember John Story a couple of years ago?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Great.

Great voice.

Chuck Foley, remember Chuck Foley?

Yeah, he played his jazz.

Yeah, he was a jazz guy.

Yeah.

And there was also he also had a wonderful show.

9:00 every morning.

The swap shop.

Oh.

Yeah.

Oh, boy.

Before we changed the format.

And so I'm sure that was popular.

It was Marv would say, okay, this is why this is the swap shop.

This is where you sell your crap and somebody else sells their crap over the radio.

That's right.

Oh, boy.

And of course, before my time there was Pat Roper.

Yeah.

And you said bit about her?

Yeah, I know, but, yeah, I found a no.

But she died, I think, in the mid 60s.

Yeah.

And she was a musician.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Right there in the studio.

Yeah.

She had a piano in the studio.

Right.

And she would have guests in very popular.

And I think she also did some of the the management work there too.

And that WGBF program director for a while That's right.

Yeah.

Gene Crawford.

Toast and coffee.

Yeah.

Wow.

And of course, like, back then, each DJ did play their own favorite music.

And I've talked about Martin, like, was the general manager when he hired me at WGBF.

And you worked for Martin.

You did for a while.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And the transition over to, you know, when we took over the station.

Right.

Yeah.

Now, when it was talk radio, the popular shows, a Rush Limbaugh, of course, was very popular.

I'm sure that boosted the ratings of WGBF.

Yeah.

During those years, it was an interesting, interesting story.

How GBF got brushed.

They had leased the new Berg Am, which had all those talk shows, and there was a flip flop.

So they put the talk format on 1280 and gave the sports format to 1180.

And that's how they kept going.

Talk.

Yeah.

On there.

Okay.

I know Don Imus did the monitor.

NBC's weekend monitor.

That's interesting.

Did GBF air, Mr.

Imus?

Yes.

Really?

Yes.

I found a recording where he was playing Nutbush City Limits, and I thought, I wonder fair that we it was immense in the morning, on the weekends on monitor.

Yes.

Right.

There you go.

I recorded some of those because they were hilarious.

I bet, and I kept thinking, this is WGBF.

All right, Don Imus.

And he was just wild.

Martin, like, would have said no, no, but.

Yeah.

Anyway.

And Bill Cullen was on.

Yes.

NBC we can monitor.

And he interviewed me when I covered Bull Island.

Oh, yeah.

About that.

Who?

The host was bill Coleman.

Cullen.

Okay.

And he goes, we're going to go now to Dave Longest.

Yeah.

Right.

My air name then covering the Bull Island Rock Festival and along the Wabash River and Soda Pop Festival.

My favorite was soda pop festival.

David, has the band showed up yet?

Well, we don't know yet.

All right.

But because people were just.

I love the coverage of that.

The how I got there.

Lynn Wells was at the Gravel Mercury Independent.

He was a reporter there, and we got there by boat.

Yeah, because everybody else was I-64 was clogged with all the traffic, and people were walking through the the pastures and stuff to get to the festival site.

So he said, let's take this John boat.

So we got gravel and went down the Wabash River and saw the people swimming nude in the river and everything.

I think we're close.

Yeah.

I said, yeah, we're close.

We're close.

So we kind of wandered through there and it was just like all these people tents and just nasty.

It was just a nasty side.

Yeah.

And nobody was really there yet.

And a couple of people were performing, but nobody was really listening.

It was just it was really a mess.

We got plenty of food here.

Don't worry about it.

He was asking me all these specific things.

Well, yes.

Nothing really going on.

I'm sorry, but I did my thing, you know?

Anyway.

Okay.

Got a story?

I'm going right now.

My guests are Randy Wheeler and Rob Calhoun.

We're talking about radio history and the recent shutdown of 1280 Am Evansville, first radio station.

So, changes in technology, guys, in your careers.

What are some of the big changes you've seen in tape recorders ruling.

Pardon me?

When I started out I was working in Rockford, and I would cover city council meetings on the sixth floor of the city building, and I had a woolens tape recorder.

Oh, goodness.

They way about they weigh about like a sound.

Yeah, it sounds monstrous.

Real, real woolen.

Jack up six stories to get up to the area behind the council chambers.

And then I had to, every half hour ago, running back to the tape recorder to change the seven inch reels to another reel.

Got back to the studio, and I'd have usually 3 or 4 reels of tape, and then I'd have to proceed going through there and cutting up the tape.

Actually cut tape, chopped it with a little.

What do they call it?

Little steel.

Yeah.

The little razor blade.

Yeah.

The little tape.

And at at your tape.

And you get it ready to go on the air the next day.

And.

Yeah, you kids don't know what you have to go through today.

You know, you use your wave editors.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, we shot film at 15, and you had to splice the film.

Yeah.

That's hideous.

Oh, yeah.

Because it would always break.

Then you had the development aspect which took off.

Oh, yeah.

Developing the film?

Yeah.

Took, you know, at least a half an hour and you're facing a deadline?

Yeah.

Then you had to back time because it took a while to make them up and roll.

Right.

If two different cameras going at the same time.

Projectors is a mess.

So, Rob, did you have any issues with some of the early equipment?

Actually, it was pretty.

We were well equipped at the LCC.

We usually had slightly ahead of everything.

Yeah, one technology that didn't go over well, which GBF did was AM stereo.

And that's kind of a long, weird story.

Effectively they came up with a standard, the FCC and one engineer who wanted his to be the standard calls to write about it.

He basically started filing appeals and everything.

So they the FCC decided we'll just let the marketplace decide which was a bad idea, because there was a three and four chance of your setup being a boat anchor, and you were spending tens of thousands of dollars.

And the bottom line was with Am radio, the interference issues always a bad thing.

So if you were hearing Am stereo in the perfect environment, oh, it sounded great.

But you get out there in your power line and just so boat anchor, explain that boat anchor in the sense that there were four systems and they said, okay, we're just going to pick.

We'll eventually see where the marketplace decides.

So if you were an owner and you're spending 50, 60 grand on the device that makes you go am stereo, and then you find out that, oh, it's not the right device.

You.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And there were stations ready to go Am stereo for years.

I mean I know VJs was but they waited because they just didn't know where it was going to go.

Yeah.

It was like the old beater VHS battling tape, you know.

Couldn't decide on which ones except to go with.

Yeah, yeah.

It wasn't a $500 VCR with a lot more.

Yeah.

And you're talking big money there?

Yeah, absolutely.

With small budgets.

Yeah.

I think the other thing, I guess digital technology and all these people go enough about about analog liking the scratches and hisses, I think.

No, I don't like that.

So we got, you know, CD technology.

And then we got into digital recording when I worked at WEAQ.

We had one of the first at machines.

So instead of taking a reel to reel out, we could take something about the size of a VCR.

Yeah.

So you had that technology and then we graduated into production, where at first it was what we call linear production, kind of what we're was talking about.

You had to listen to it.

Well, now we have something you can put up on a screen, and you can point your mouse to it and you get through it.

And that's the greatest thing in the world.

And the thing is, with those programs, anybody can have them.

So it's not like the days you had to go out and buy a real to reel.

You know, you can download a free program so it's easier to make content now.

Yeah.

And you can be one man band.

Yeah I am.

And now most of the content people listen to right here.

You know.

Exactly.

That's.

Yeah.

Yeah.

On your phone.

And they recorded it that way too.

You know, you watch network News now and you'll see reporters out there holding up their iPhones or whatever.

It's a good microphone.

It's great little microphone.

And the quality is good.

Amazing.

Impress.

The programs have the ability for you to work on them on the phone.

Yeah.

You can edit right there in the field.

You have to worry about the wall and sack out in the field.

That's right.

Now here are some early programs and performers on the Drifting Pioneers, the Singing Cowboy and his troupe, the Black Knight, the masked piano maestro, the Three Evrard sisters, Whistling Marion Jones, Margie Knapp, cooking expert, the Grace Field and Garden Guru, the Flower Lady, Mrs.

Lewis Korf and the Happy Valley Boys, just to name a few.

My guests are Randy Wheeler and Rob Calhoun.

Local radio veterans radio program, of course, evolves over time.

Like many stations, changed formats became the rocker.

We talked about Wolfman Jack, then conservative talk radio, the future of Am radio.

We talked about many stations are going silent.

About 4000 Am stations still in the US, still operating.

I'm sure that number will probably dwindle rapidly next few years.

Yeah, and we talked about a campaign by the National Association of Broadcasters to keep AM radio on the air.

Yeah.

What do you think about that, Rob?

Oh, boy.

Do I have an opinion.

Good.

Good.

Okay.

Overall, I have a problem with one industry telling another industry what to do.

And the thing is.

And on the car dashboard, we used to have a tracks, cassette CDs, and eventually the marketplace obviously decided.

And what's going on is the NAB is upset because they think they're going to lose all this revenue, not having an Am radio there, but they're kind of missing the point because they force this issue.

But they've missed the retailing issue that you can go to any big box store and not find it.

AM radio.

That's right.

You might find like a boom box with an FM radio, but that's it.

But it does agitate me on that point that, you know, it's like, look, you know, you're trying to push a consumer behavior that doesn't exist anymore.

And that's why I get a little weird about that.

Well, of course, I think their push was that to keep em on the air as providing emergency information and natural disasters.

Yeah.

And and that's another weird thing.

I mean, as I jokingly said a while back, you know, they want to put them in the EV's.

Well, if there's an EMP, an electromagnetic pulse is going to wipe out everything anyway.

So, I mean, it's just wishful thinking.

I mean, again, that's just my opinion on it.

And car makes some car makers removing Am radio from their new EV models.

Yeah, it's a matter of the interference issue, because you got so much going on and building filters to keep that.

Yeah, yeah.

And they don't want to spend the money to correct that problem.

Well yeah.

They don't see any future for the formats, you know.

Right.

Okay.

So the what's going to happen to him radio then guys is eventually fade away.

Fade away.

I mean even around here I mean, I can't think of 1 a.m.

that stand alone.

Everybody's got a translator and they, most of the time will even keep an eye on the air.

The AM’s on the air.

They forget about it.

Yeah.

And it's worth noting GB almost got a translator, but it was decided to sell it off to another entity.

It will explain that translator.

What happened?

Years ago.

This is the logic of of this business.

Am was having issues.

So they said you know what?

We need an FM.

So they took advantage of a rule called the translator rule, which is in essence, let's just say if there was a big hill between here and Owensboro, W and I, and put a repeater station to give Owensboro coverage that would be blocked.

So they finagled the rules to say that these AMS could have an FM.

So they get this 250 watt FM signal.

And there's they they pop them on the air and the byproduct.

Yeah, you're on FM.

Most of the time you don't mention your Am anymore.

And lastly, a lot of these people don't monitor the AM’s.

Most of these AM’s that are supposed to be on the air when the translator is on the air or off the air, because they forget about it.

Now we still have other Am stations in the market.

Yeah.

But again, they're all on translators and they're just kind of, you know, after afterthoughts.

Yeah.

I mean, so do they have any advertising or just pushing on the FM frequency?

A lot of them do.

Okay.

And that was the kicker too.

Well, so FM bright future?

Yeah, I think so for the moment.

Right.

Yeah.

The moment.

Yeah.

Chugging right along.

Yeah.

Good.

Any news stations coming on board?

Oh, goodness.

There's no room in this market.

Literally, the dial is filled.

Really?

Unless you want to buy one.

And then that's going to be a lofty price.

And then you have to pay off the loan amount.

Right.

You know.

So what would a signal go for?

Oh, goodness.

Well, I think 73.

David.

No I'm not.

I'm just I'm just curious.

You got 73 million.

You can buy the South Central stations.

That's what they probably want.

More than that now.

Yeah.

But to give you an idea how messed up this is, when Stowe and WBJS was sold to Brill Media, they pai They got $8 million.

Now, what do you get for $8 million?

Property?

No.

You got a broken couple of broken down transmitters.

And that was it.

A couple of vans?

Yeah.

Because that was the money to convince century to give you the license.

And then when John David Engelbrecht bought Stowe, he paid $13 million for one station and got kind of the same deal.

It got a transmitter.

He got some CDs, but no really physical property outside of the the amount of money to convince Alan Brill to sell the station.

So that's the crazy.

And then you have to make up for that financial obligation.

But it turned out to be a pretty good deal because that coupled with wiki.

Yes, there was the ABCs.

There was a happy ending.

Yes.

$73 million from.

He did pretty well on that.

Yeah I know.

University of Evansville had a station.

Yes.

EV yeah.

And they sold that.

Did they sell that signal?

I went to or.

No.

Yeah.

That Kayla.

What's the other one?

Maybe it was Caleb way for that.

She bought it.

Yeah.

So I guess that was a financial move for the school.

Yeah.

Yeah, I think it in their mind was overhead and they weren't getting much return on the investment.

I just always got the impression that there was maybe a small few that cared about it, but I don't think the university really cared for the most part.

A few cared passionately about it, and that was it.

And now they had the jazz programing, I think.

Yes, they did very, very popular.

Yeah.

And it was it was an outlet for the students to, to learn how to get into the business.

We are saying goodbye to WGBF radio Evansville first radio station.

A lot of memories, the glory days, familiar voices and programs.

But, you know, over the years, radio has survived over and thrived in, in many markets and in this market as well.

Yeah.

I mean, the quality survives, right?

Absolutely.

You got to have the program.

You've got to have the people.

You got to have the it's the product.

You got to have some reason for the listeners to tune in and more listeners tune in and the advertisers go, we'll go with them.

Yeah.

And you have to invest.

Oh, that.

Now wait a minute.

There's this thing called a in your bonus, the vice presidents get.

That's the kicker too.

I really wish you'd see more investment, especially programing and even promotion.

You got to put your name out there, especially in a diary market.

But that's decisions made beyond me.

So what do you guys see for the future of this market in radio.

Oh I think it's going to be a good future.

We've got some good competitive radio stations.

We have some good teams and good names.

And you build a relationship with an audience.

And I can think of a couple of good teams around here and of course, public radio.

Public radio's going through some tough times because of some decisions beyond their reach in Washington, but as a result, they're getting good local support, you know, as is a case with nine.

And, you know, if you have good journalists like John Gibson, you're going to have good listenership.

Well, thanks for the shout out there.

Well, you know, NPR.

Since I started working here, it's an education.

I sit down and listen to the program and I learned so much.

Absolutely.

And it's such a variety of stories that they cover.

And and they're bold to say they are bold and.

And you have to be now.

Wasn't that a nice set up, a cover you, by the way?

Well, you did very good set up.

So NPR's hanging in there.

We're hanging in there public.

Public media is fabulous.

Doing our best.

Fabulous.

Can do anymore.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, no, people are listening to radio.

Any stats to share?

Or are the demographics good?

Kind of depends.

It's always good on the money demo.

That's always where it needs to be.

And that's where all the.

554.

You got it.

If you're a woman, that's it.

Yep.

That's the sweet spot.

That's the sweet spot, baby.

Yeah.

I know the car manufacturer.

The car dealers are a big, big, big advertiser.

The buyer awareness cycle.

You might need a car tomorrow, so head on out here to whoever.

Yeah.

So you guys, have you ever done any commercials there?

Oh, yes.

I've not done a TV commercials.

I do voice work, but yeah, I maybe I've done 1 or 2 stand ups, but any any unusual products that you that you talked over years.

I can't think of any.

I've done some phony commercials for some false products, but, you know nothing that stands out.

Usually it's just.

Okay, here we go.

Just read the copy and be done with it.

Have you always done news then, Randy, have you done any spots?

I've done some spots when I was kid in DeKalb.

That was just part of the deal.

You know, everybody had to do their spots.

Yeah.

And John, who was a job John and I worked together at Candy Kalb, and we did our Sunday.

Sunday.

Beautiful.

Yours three drag strip.

Be there.

But what day is it again, Randy?

Sunday.

And your radio hours.

Have you had some unusual hours?

Oh, goodness.

Oh, absolutely.

That's part of the deal.

Yeah.

Yeah.

They're all hours are already hours.

Yeah.

Something happens.

You go.

Yeah.

Like TV.

That's right.

You know.

That's right.

Nobody respects three in the morning while I'm sleeping.

Go.

How many snowstorms have you driven through?

Oh, good to have you.

Yes, I remember a snowstorm.

And you probably remember it to where it was almost impossible.

But we did it to get up the hill because you were right across from us, the Channel 14, WIKY.

Yeah.

And getting up that hill, we got so far and a very nice SOB.

And then we all had to get out.

Diane Douglas and JB and me and the man who was driving the car who was our general manager.

We just, you know, mushed it up the hill to get to the radio station just in time for them to go on the air at six.

And I was supposed to have a newscast.

I just ad libbed all over the place, talking about the weather.

Well, you can do.

And your own experiences.

Yes.

Getting the station.

I was told by Bonnie Garwood the secret was to go up on Mount Auburn there, up Saint Joe because it's an the the great up Saint Joe's on his bed.

That's right.

And apparently.

Well plus on top of that to the city tends to clean Mount Auburn Hill pretty quick.

Okay.

I didn't notice that last last snow, but, you know, we used to park down at the lot down there at the the stockers.

Yeah.

Yeah, we parked down there and up the hill, and then he attire tower ice.

The other thing.

Oh, yeah.

You had to watch.

We had to wear helmets.

Yes.

Because the ice was falling.

They all gave us, like like these hard hats where because of the ice was falling.

And we had dishes from our networks.

I would have to go at 445 in the morning, out there with rooms and clean the snow and the ice off the dish, or else we didn't have network feeds coming in.

I still have to do that at Pelzer with my networks.

Yeah.

One other question, Randy.

Were you there when the big fire at wiki?

No, I was not.

Well, I was a GBF at that time.

Okay.

It was shortly before I moved over to WIKY.

Okay.

And we had an opportunity at GBF off to repay WIKY because when GBF had their fire on Diamond Avenue, wiki said, hey, we'll give you some cart machines, we'll give you some turntables and, you know, get you back on the air.

And so when wiki had their big fire, we did the same thing.

Quid pro quo.

Yeah.

I'll tell you one more.

I found in my research that when we had an FM years ago and they had something going on, I can't remember if wiki had a problem or if it was the FM, but the same deal happened.

KC 103.

No, this was actually the the the original FM.

Oh, okay.

That one that was on in the 40s and 50s.

All right.

They had an issue and that was a situation where GB.

And so it's always been a friendliness of broadcasting even though it's, you know, competitive.

Yeah.

That's true.

That's true.

I, I always enjoyed that.

When I first started in broadcasting that we, you know we be competitive of course, but afterwards we're all buddies.

You know we've all been through the same wars, we know the same problems.

And we all have the same issues with management.

So yeah, that's what Hagedorn was for at the bottom of the hill.

That's right.

We we endured and and we just enjoyed.

We enjoy the medium.

Yeah we really do.

It was fun.

Once a year you get together for the awards events.

You know, some rubber chicken that have a beer or two and see who wins the awards that year.

And right.

Ubiquitous rubber chicken.

I had the three beers first, and the chicken tastes beautiful.

Oh, that was better.

Yes.

Well, guys, this has been a lot of fun.

We could go on and on with our radio memories.

My thanks to Randy Wheeler and Rob Calhoun turning up the volume to keep radio history alive.

Thanks a lot, guys.

You're welcome to be here.

Been fun.

I'm David James, and this is Two Main Street.