March 2025

The Superflex

A Publication of the Alabama Historical Radio Society March 2025

NOTE FROM PRESIDENT WAG

Members,

Apologies for the slight delay of this column this month, but family trips at month’s end intervened….

Mark your calendars!

This is the date and link for upcoming AHRS Business meeting to be held on Monday, April 28^th, 2025, at 7:00 PM. The Exec CMTE will meet by invitation only at 6:00 PM in person.

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86330579924?pwd=ckZLWEJMb0V2ajhBUzh0S2liQnlmZz09

Meeting ID: 863 3057 9924
Passcode: 631140

Boyd Bailey’s most recent class on April 3^rd included these topics:

1. Continued fun and tricks with transformers, with a focus on a 'no-power-loss' method of increasing or, especially, decreasing line voltages by either 6 or 12 VAC. This can come in handy with certain equipment or radios that are happier at around 110 V rather than the 120 - 124 V in our wall outlet.
2. Some follow-up on a couple of Tom Desaulnier's interesting repair projects.
3. Continue reviewing stage-by-stage trouble shooting approach.
4. Groundwork for systematic signal tracing.
Attention Restoration Techs: Find us some "puzzlers" for class!

His upcoming electronics class will be on Saturday, May 3rd, at 9:00 AM and will discuss more trouble shooting!

The following link remains in effect:

Topic: AHRS Radio Restoration Class

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web..us/j/88180351990?pwd=N2lucjB3WVhtR05nTSs5S0xGcURadz09

Another thank-you to Dave Cisco and Robert Cain who presented on the history of BARC (Birmingham Amateur Radio Club), which has a very long legacy here in the city. The video is available on Youtube or directly through our website.

We held another successful auction on site and online Saturday, March 29^th. The VTVM donated by an old med school friend sold at auction to one of our members—so, it lives on. There were 23 items on offer, and I want to thank all the guys who gathered the items and evaluated, and where possible repaired and cleaned them, for potential sale. This includes the logistics guys who got the word out and managed its online aspect.

Member Ron Hall preparing a radio for the auction

AHRS Auction Results

I am not going to debate the politics or policy, but it appears that the Voice of America (VOA) and its sisters will disappear from the airways soon. Take a moment to reflect the role VOA has played in radio history as well as that of our nation.

An invitation to our annual celebration of broadcasters,

2025 Legends of Broadcast

Thursday, April 17, 2025 from 10:00 AM - 1:00 PM

1801 Reverend Abraham Woods Jr. Blvd

(corner of 18th Street and 8th Ave. North or 759 18^th Street in your GPS)

Downtown Birmingham, Alabama 35203

Plenty of free parking next to the building in Alabama Power Parking Lot #2

Fellowship, Lunch, and a Tour of the Shop, Museum, & Facility

Our facility includes a state-of-the-art shop, extensive electronics library, broadcast and communication equipment museum, a functional 1960's broadcast studio that will be open for inspection.

We will have several special guests from the broadcast industry.

All are invited.

Please RSVP to spwestbro@bellsouth.net or call (205) 305-0679

Our Board is having its first meeting this year (by invitation only) on Tuesday, April 22^nd 2025. If any members have an item that should be considered for the agenda, let leadership know.

Mother’s Day is coming up next month and a classic radio or piece of test equipment would be a fitting gift. Of course, my wife was in England for Mothering Sunday which is linked to Easter and will be here in the States for Mother’s Day; naturally, she’ll double dip.

We were in England at the end of March and, on our return, took the grandsons to NYC during their spring break. England did not provide much opportunity to see historical radios, especially near Hadrian’s Wall in Northumbria. My only sighting was a Bush DAC 90A in the restored office of a local archaeologist who’d begun the dig at a major Roman fort (Vindolanda). The 1959 radio with Bakelite case (also available in a cream coloured Bakelite cabinet at extra cost) uses 5 valves for AM reception: Broadcast (MW) and Long Wave. Per Radiomuseum.org: “The best-selling valve radio in Great Britain. Made by Bush Radio Ltd, London”

The boys enjoyed the Intrepid museum in NYC that included the submarine USS Growler. The aircraft carrier Intrepid served from mid-WW II through the Vietnam War; alas, time did not allow me to get to her radio room. We did see the Growler’s however. She served for only a few years as a launch platform for the Regulus cruise missile and is the sole survivor of her class, which was replaced by nuclear-powered, Polaris subs in the early 1960’s. She was diesel-powered and quarters were… cramped.

Radio Room of the *Growler*, aft and portside hull views, respectively.

Perhaps we have a submariner amongst our members who can ID some of these antique radios? Tom D. Can you help us out?

Respectfully submitted,

Wag

President, AHRS

Article by Aineissa Ramirez from the Society’s good friend Jim Wilson, Editor of Dots & Dashes, The Official Publication of the Morse Telegraph Club, Inc. as recommended by AHRS member Dave Cisco

WERD (Atlanta)

WERD was the first radio station owned and programmed by African Americans. The station was established in Atlanta, Georgia on October 3, 1949, broadcasting on 860 AM (now used by WAEC). The National Black Radio Hall of Fame Atlanta Chapter is reopening WERD which still exists at its birth location and will also include a historical museum with it after renovations of the facility are completed.

WERD in Atlanta was the first radio station owned and operated by African Americans. (WDIA in Memphis was on the air in 1948 doing black—or Negro as it was then called—programming, but the owners were not African American). Jesse B. Blayton Sr., an accountant, bank president, and Atlanta University professor, purchased WERD in 1949 for $50,000. He changed the station format to "black appeal" and hired his son Jesse Jr. as station manager. "Jockey" Jack Gibson was hired and by 1951 he was the most popular DJ in Atlanta. Ken Knight from Daytona Beach, Florida was also hired to come in as the station's first Program Director.

The station is still housed in the Prince Hall Masonic Temple building on Auburn Avenue,^[3] then one of the wealthiest black neighborhoods in the United States. Located in that same building was the headquarters of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, formed in 1957, led by Martin Luther King Jr., and staffed by Ella Baker. According to Gibson, King would tap the ceiling of SCLC office (just below WERD) with a broomstick to signal he had an announcement to make. Gibson would then lower a microphone from the studio window to King at the window below.

WDIA, in Memphis, Tennessee, though white owned, had Nat D. Williams as part of the first radio station programmed entirely for African Americans, WERD had "Jockey Jack" Gibson, a friend of Blayton from Chicago. Blayton sold the station in 1968. Ken Knight purchased the callsign and took WERD to Jacksonville, Florida. He changed WRHC to WERD; until his death in 1973. For many years it was a gospel station there and the station decided to name the street WERD Radio Drive; as it is still named today.

-Wikipedia

Quote of the Month

Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.

Albert Einstein

Life is like a sandwich, no matter which way you flip it the bread always comes first. - Halo

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