April 2025
The Superflex
A Publication of the Alabama Historical Radio Society April 2025
NOTE FROM PRESIDENT WAG
Members,
Mark your calendars!
To avoid a conflict with Memorial Day, the date for next AHRS Business meeting has been moved to Monday, June 2nd, 2025, at 7pm. The Exec CMTE will meet in person by invitation only at 6pm.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86330579924?pwd=ckZLWEJMb0V2ajhBUzh0S2liQnlmZz09
Meeting ID: 863 3057 9924
Passcode: 631140
Boyd Bailey’smost recent class on Saturday, May 3rd discussed more trouble shooting:
1. More signal tracing basics;
2. Trouble-shooting the RCA 8X71 (AM working, FM NOT working) - some preliminary testing and ideas from Reid Braswell; and
3. A review of highlights and key points in our radio classes over the first of the past 5 years
His next class is Saturday, June 7th, 2025, and will continue the review of prior classes for topics to revisit or refocus upon. Details forthcoming as we approach this date.
The following link remains in effect:
Topic: AHRS Radio Restoration Class
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web..us/j/88180351990?pwd=N2lucjB3WVhtR05nTSs5S0xGcURadz09
Boyd not only donates his time to teach our monthly electronics classes, but he also hosts the Zoom business meetings. Equally important, Boyd has repaired and calibrated shop equipment, especially Simpson meters and one of our TV7 tube testers. The latter’s bias control, a unique component, broke and Boyd was able to fix the tester with a replacement control from an expert on the West Coast.
Our 2025 Legends of Broadcastluncheon was held on Thursday, April 17th and by all measures was a success. The meeting space at the shop was filled and included on-air personalities, broadcast engineers and staff, and others whose lives impacted and were impacted by radio. I also want to thank AHRS members who helped put on the event.
Our Board of Directors had its first meeting this year on Tuesday, April 22nd, 2025, with all officers and directors present. The Society will be transitioning its financial software to the online version. We will be revisiting our committee membership and structure to have both a designated chair and Board liaison. Committees include Library, Museum & Exhibit, Shop, Finance, and Technology. A goal is to create a PR/Outreach CMTE and, as a start, launch a presence in social media. If any member wishes to volunteer for an existing CMTE or help in a PR capacity, please contact one of the officers, Board members, or me about your interest.
A group of us is taking our annual pilgrimage to the Dayton Hamvention in mid-May and will hopefully return with additions to our collections. Details, next month!
Robert Cain has generously donated several hundred dollars for AHRS to potentially add to its library and/or purchase equipment. He has also found a print version of The Hallicrafters Story by Max De Henseler, HB9RS, which he is donating to our library. Mr. De Henseler was a personal friend of Hallicrafters founder Bill Halligan, and his book provides unusual insights into Halligan’s life and early struggles. This well-illustrated, indexed book has 245 pages and several lists of models and features.
Tom Killian and Ray Giles are looking to host another auction in May or June, so look for an announcement soon.
It’s not too early to help us with the Huntsville Hamfest in mid-August. We need volunteers, including members to help us select and transport items to the ‘Fest.
Everyone enjoy the springtime and upcoming Memorial Day which perhaps deserves extra emphasis this year since VE Day occurred 80 years ago on May 8th, 1945. VJ Day won’t be far behind, on August 15th. And to think, just over a year from now, we’ll be observing the 250thanniversary of Independence Day, although it was not until Yorktown and the later Treaty of Paris (1783) that we formally separated from English rule. On a personal note, it seems like yesterday when I moved my young family to Galveston, TX, to begin residency: July 1st, 1976!
Respectfully submitted,
Wag
President, AHRS
WSGN was the first Birmingham station to adopt a Top 40 format in December 1955 under program director Jim Taber. Its on-air team of "Good Guys" included Duke Rumore, Tommy Charles, and Doug Layton. Other notable announcers were Bill Bolen and Neal Miller. (AHRS additions to the Good Guys: Bob Barry, Glen Powers and Don Mosley)
During the 1950s the station moved its studio to the Southern Life & Health Insurance building (1954) at 2318-20 7th Avenue South. It also built a "Sky Castle" studio in the parking lot of Eli's Drive-In where deejays took live requests from teenagers cruising the area. (AHRS Addition: A large print of the Skycastle is on the wall of the Joe Deneci /WSGN DJ booth at the AHRS Shop) In the Summer of 1964 the station opened a new studio in the penthouse of the City Federal Building under station manager Ben McKinnon.
WSGN was soon challenged by WYDE-AM and WVOK-AM in the pop format, but both of those faded by 1965. The station was credited with helping break Bobbie Gentry's "Ode to Billy Joe" to a national audience in 1968. The next major challenge came from the new WERC-AM in 1972. The upstart station moved into the brighter "teenybopper" pop while WSGN favored harder rock, which attracted a slightly older audience. Rick Dees hosted the morning drive program from 1973 to 1974. Other 1970s personalities included Jon Anthony, John Bass, Scottie Brink, Rick Davis, Amaysa Kincaid, Steve Norris, Glen Powers, and Ronnie Todd.
By 1976 the station reversed course and tried to take WERC head on. New program director Jan Jeffries brought in Tommy Charles and John Ed Willoughby for the morning show and added deejay Kevin McCartny, a veteran of Philadelphia radio.
Later days
The station remained competitive in the Top 40 market until true FM top 40 radio came to Birmingham with WKXX-FM in 1977. By 1981 WSGN was targeting older listeners as adult-contemporary/oldies format "Music 610: The Station That Grew Up With You." The station was one of the first to adopt the "AM Stereo" format for owners Harte-Hanks Broadcasting.
In February 1984, unable to compete with WMJJ-FM, WSGN went for an even older demographic, playing big bands and adult standards. A year later the station was sold. The final broadcast ended at 12:01 AM on April 26, 1985. The last songs played were "We'll Meet Again" by Vera Lynn and "In the Mood" by Glenn Miller. The station became a simulcast partner for country-format WZZK-FM, adopting its call letters as WZZK-AM. WAPI-AM soon adopted the nostalgia/easy listening format.
- Bhamwiki
Quotes of the Month
“He who thinks to much about every step he takes will always stay on one foot.” - Wisdom of the Ages
“Learning is a weightless treasury one may carry easily.” - Wisdom of the Ages
“The reason I talk to myself is because I’m the only one whose answers I accept.”
- George Carlin
“Fighting for peace is like screwing for virginity.”
- George Carlin
We meet every Saturday (unless a Holiday weekend) at 8:30 A.M. until around 11:30 A.M., at the one-story AHRS Shop at the corner of 8th Avenue North and 18th Street, (1801 8th Avenue North, Birmingham, AL 35203). Please use the rear (Southeast) entrance.
The Shop is open on Tuesdays at 8:30 A.M. until around 11:30 A.M. Note that parking can be a problem on Tuesdays, so you may have to find street parking occasionally.
Regular monthly members meetings are on the fourth Monday night starting at 7:00 PM with the Executive Meeting starting at 6:30 PM
Please come join us!
The electronics classes are generally on “Zoom” and “in-person” at the AHRS Shop, typically the first Saturday of each month (except when something special is taking place, then we agree on an alternative Saturday)
Check your emails for the schedule and how to participate.
We start from the beginning Ohms Law, inductors, resistor and Capacitors color codes, as well as what each component does within the radio circuits. We also teach how to use test equipment used in the repairing of radios. We teach troubleshooting radio troubles, as well as how to read a radio diagram.
Currently the class is studying advance topics relating to troubleshooting and project radio repair. We are retooling our website in hopes of archiving prior classes for those who may have missed a prior class. Email will provide timely details on date, topics & links.
There are coil winding classes, and one-on-one repair help. Come join these classes!
Membership dues are $25.00 a year, payable beginning in January. If you have questions about your dues, you can contact Treasurer Mike Woodruff at 205-823-7204. Dues can be mailed to AHRS at P.O. Box 131418, Birmingham, Alabama 35213 or paid on-line at https://alhrs.org
Be sure and check out our website at https://alhrs.org, which has copies of all newsletters from 2006 to the present (click on News), videos, photo galleries, museum, Old Time Radio columns, Projects, Reading Rooms, Archives, and Contact Information. Within the next few months we hope to update our website and add additional content and new capabilities
President – Richard “Wag” Waguespack
(205) 531-9528
drminims@aol.com
Vice President – Steven Westbrook
(205) 305-0679
spwestbro@bellsouth.net
Recording Secretary – Grady Shook
(205) 281-3007
gshook@bellsouth.net
Treasurer – Mike Woodruff
(205) 823-7204
woodruff_michael@hotmail.com
Boyd Bailey, Member and Instructor
(334) 412-6996
boyd.bailey@charter.net
Newsletter Editor/Webmaster – Steven Westbrook
(205) 305-0679
spwestbro@bellsouth.net
Web Address:
https://alhrs.org
E-mail Address:
ahrs2000@gmail.com
Youtube Channel: Alabama Historical Radio Society - YouTube