'Twas the night before Christmas! Check out this vintage photo and story from contributor Don Lindsey-
Howdy!Someone mentioned wanting some pics from the ‘60s. Here’s one of WSEV’s control room from 1969. To the board’s left was the AM transmitter with its huge tubes filled with plasma dancing around to whatever music was playing at the time. To the immediate left in the rack was a turntable-in-a-drawer which we used as one of the stereo turntables. After AM went dark at sundown, we’d flip some switches and turn on the FM stereo transmitter. At that point, we’d load up the turntable on the right and the turntable-in-a-drawer with actual stereo records. That went on till Midnight when we’d sign off.
The announcer with the dorky clothes and haircut is me, of course, and I haven’t seen that weight in years. In the room just beyond the window behind the board, Dolly Parton used to perform on Saturday morning live broadcasts. That happened before I came there in 1967, but folks like Larry Trotter and Sam Truan (who’s still in radio now) would tell me about those times.
Anybody got a good reel-to-reel player they can loan/sell me? Got enough quarter-inch tape to stretch to the Moon, probably containing lots of good stuff from some very talented people in Knoxville … but I have no idea what’s on most of them!
Thanks again for the great site!
Don Lindsey