A Memory

WSIU -FM consisted of a small 2 room radio station at Southern Illinois University It had a control room with a soundproof glass wall looking into a broadcast booth and a short hallway connecting them. 

The control room had a panel of dials and switches on a table facing the broadcast booth.  The broadcast booth had two 78-rpm turntables, a microphone and a volume control.  That was it.

The first time I walked into the studio, I asked myself  “Have I made a mistake by transferring to SIU so I could major in Mass Communications?”   The first person I met was John Katz, a professor in the School of Broadcasting. He was standing in the control room looking through the glass into the broadcast booth with a less than happy glaze. The student who was on the air mumbled as he delivered the news read from the Associated Press machine located in the corner of the control room. Other students would move the news reports from the control room to the broadcast booth with total disregard for the noise they made opening and closing doors. 

 But when I came in to the control room for the first time, Mr. Katz greeted me warmly and welcomed me to WSIU. Within an hour, he taught me how to use the control room dials and there I was sitting in front of them facing the broadcast booth and trading hand signals with the on-air announcer. I loved it.  

I went from high school to the University of Colorado for two years. One day, I was walking around the football stadium for reasons I can’t remember, when I saw a sign under the stands that had an arrow pointing toward “Broadcast Studio”. Of course I followed the arrow and found the studio for the campus radio station. 

I was hooked. After spending a couple months at the studio, I knew my future was in broadcasting. So I transferred to Southern Illinois University to pursue a degree in Mass Communications. I spent those first few months working in the control room spinning dials, plugging in PBS, and making sure the DJ stayed awake and cued up.

It took only a few months before I asked Mr. Katz if I could be a broadcaster. The only open position was a late night program called “Midnight Serenade”. It ran every night from 10:00 to 12:00 and consisted of romantic music. Its theme song was Beethoven’s Midnight Sonata and that’s how every show began and ended. The songs in the middle were always love songs- famous singers and famous bands. 

In between songs, I would read love poems, report on the weather and talk about the artists. While a song was playing on one turntable, I would be cuing up the next song on the other. The songs came from dozens of LP albums that lined the back of the booth and, since I was alone, they always reflected my feelings of the moment.

I ended every show with “Have a great night and sleep, perchance to dream” ollowed, of course, by the Moonlight Sonata. I still dream of those days.

By Richard Levy

From: United States