May 2025

by Steven Westbrook

The Superflex

A Publication of the Alabama Historical Radio Society     May 2025

NOTE FROM PRESIDENT WAG

Members,

Mark your calendars!

The date for next AHRS Business meeting will fall on the usual 4th Monday, June 23rd, 2025, at 7:00 PM. 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’s next class is Saturday, June 7th, 2025, and will continue with the following:

1.  We will continue hitting some high points on topics covered in 2020
2.  Mainly will rehash the vacuum tube, with attention to the electron cloud and internal resistance equivalency
3.  Break down the pentode and pentagrid
4.  Demonstrate a practical approach to FM alignment of the RCA 8X71 (Reid's class radio restoration)

The following link remains in effect:

Topic: AHRS Radio Restoration Class

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

Our Board of Directors Committees include Library, Museum & Exhibit, Shop, Finance, and Technology. Each committee will have a chair and Board member liaison.  Another goal is to create a PR/Outreach CMTE and, as a start, launch a presence in social media. We have outlined the newly approved membership and a couple have openings.  If any member wishes to volunteer for one of these or help in a PR capacity, please contact one of the officers, Board members, or me about your interest.

We recently re-evaluated our committee structure and have approved the following:

§  Library Robert Cain, Chair; Dave Cisco, Board Liaison; Dee Haynes, Tom Killian. (Dave wished to step down as Chair and turn the reins over to Robert.)

Robert has plans to increase use of our lending library, current on the basement level in the room outside the ladies’ restroom and perhaps relocating it to the main floor. We also secured additions to our resource/reference library at Dayton, some funded by a donation from Robert and others from the McCrary Family Foundation.

Robert also wants to highlight some of the books in the lending library with a review article in the newsletter, so be looking in upcoming editions.

§  Museum & Exhibit Steven Westbrook, Chair; John Outland, Board Liaison; Dee Haynes

This committee needs several additional members since it is responsible both for the formal museum in the Alabama Power atrium and items in the exhibit area at the shop. Please let us know if you have any interest in serving on the committee.

§  Shop Tom Killian serves as both Chair and Board Liaison; Ray Giles; Grady Shook; Willie Henderson; and new members Boyd Bailey and Dave Johnson. The Tubes Subcommittee has John Outland and Gene Samples (who will assume the more active role in coming months when he retires from his day job).

§  Finance Mike Woodruff, Treasurer & Chair; Tom Killian as Board Liaison; Steven Westbrook.

This committee is defined by our Bylaws and will now be standing, rather than formed annually at the end of our fiscal year. The committee needs two additional members: One additional Board member and a member not on the Board or serving as an officer. Please let us know if you wish to serve on the committee; terms are for one year but can be renewed.

§  Technology Boyd Bailey serves as Chair and Board Liaison; Robert Cain; Rick Curl; Robert Cain; Steven Westbrook; Mike Woodruff.

§  Nominating This committee is constituted annually per our Bylaws late each calendar year to nominate candidates for Board and Officer positions voted upon at the annual business (& Holiday) meeting.

Tom Killian and Ray Giles are looking to host another auctionbut we have a lot to do in the next couple of months, including our participation at the Huntsville Hamfest in mid-August. We need volunteers, including members to help us select and transport items to the ‘Fest, including keys which we need help identifying and valuing. A panorama of our collection of keys below.

A group of us took our annual pilgrimage to the Dayton Hamvention in mid-May and had a wonderful experience. We returned with additions to the library and a donated, fully restored Hallicrafters SX-88. It was produced for only a couple of years (1954-55) and listed at $595 (about $7,000 today which is not too different some prices currently quoted). John Green, a longtime friend of the Society and many of our members, did the restoration at his home in NC. We got it from him along with his notes and a matching R 42 speaker while at Dayton.

Left: The group at the Antique Wireless Assoc. (AWA) site during Hamvention where we again purchased historical books for the library. From the left: me, Dave Belt (from NC and friend of John), Jim Kreuzer, John Green, Felicia Kreuzer (Jim’s better half), Dave Cisco, and John Outland.
Above is the group from AHRS as we prepare to return from our motel near Dayton. Inside and pre-packed is Dave Cisco (arrow). Behind him and right to left are John Outland, our Board Chair; Steven Westbrook, VP; Boyd Bailey-Board member, class teacher, master repair guy, and partly retired family medicine doctor in Selma; and me, driver of my wife’s Pilot.
John Green is explaining how he restored the SX-88 and contents of his documentation. We hope to have a series of Zoom lectures from John on the radio itself and process by which he resurrected it. We hope John can include a bit of his personal history in radio and life in general. John grew up at attended high school, overlapping Dave Cisco and John Outland. He and his friend Dave Belt drove over from North Carolina.
Below The SX-88 and matching speaker with manual in the AHRS shop. A real beauty, who weighs in… well, we won’t give the lady’s weight. We will find a special place to exhibit the pair and try to provide some relevant history.

Thanks, ever so     much, John!

The original label on the R-42 Hallicrafters speaker. This makes it a bit older than the SX-88, and a year older than I am!

While we don’t have a photo, yet, John Outland won the raffle sponsored by DX-ers at the Hamvention, a new ICOM IC-705! Congrats John!!

We are looking a making some items that might be considered for auction or at a hamfest, available to our members. We plan to have details in an upcoming newsletter.

We were recently advised an early member of the Society, Jerry Lowe passed away. A representative of the estate states Jerry would have wished his radios and related electronic equipment to be donated to the Society. As a result, a group of volunteer members went to his residence on the southsie of Birmingham and acquires many broadscast and amateur radios. Some of the items were be placed in the Society,s permanent collection and others were will appear in future auctions.

In closing, my med school friend, ham, and antique radio fan sent this which is both shareable and perhaps cringeworthy:

Respectfully submitted,

Wag

President, AHRS

Duke Rumore

Angelo F. “Duke” Rumore was a Birmingham native, attending Glen Iris School and Ramsey High School while growing up on the Southside. He got his start in radio at WVOK-AM in 1952 when his brother, Joe Rumore, another legendary Birmingham DJ, let him work during his vacations. Later on in 1952, Duke worked in Memphis at WMC-AM but 6 months later he returned to Birmingham, this time to stay.

In 1955 Duke Rumore was named the top radio DJ in Birmingham while he was with WJLD-AM. In 1957 he moved on to WSGN-AM where he hosted both morning and afternoon “Drive Time”. He usually came on the air at 4:45 am after “Miss Midnight” signed off and his show ran until 9 am. His afternoon drive-time show was from 3 until 6 pm. He was the number 1 DJ with the high school kids because he always played the records they wanted to hear.

It was during this time that he began his “Duke in Dixieland” record hops. Starting out at the old Pickwick Club on the Southside “Duke’s” traveled around to many different locations including some Sunday afternoons at Holiday Beach just outside of Bessemer where the teens gathered to dance. But his most popular and longest lasting location was at the Ensley National Guard Armory on Friday and Saturday nights. The admission charge was only 50¢ and you could stay all 3 hours, 8 until 11 pm. It’s hard to describe what Duke’s was other than to say it was a “happening”. You had to be there to experience. It was a place where high school students from all over Jefferson County gathered to make new friends, hear some good music, including some local bands. Locally we all remember that night in 1961 when the Premieres, a popular local band recorded “Are You All Right?” live, which became a big hit in five southern states.

In 1962 Duke went to WYDE-AM where he remained until 1977. WYDE had a circular driveway in its early location where teenagers could drive by and see the DJ’s while they were on the air. Duke was popular because he played requests from those who drove by. Sometimes even playing records on the air that were brought by the teenagers for him to play. When WYDE was sold in 1977 Duke went to WZZK-FM where he worked for 5 years until retiring in 1982.

Duke was in radio at a time when DJ’s could play almost any record they wanted to as many times as they wanted to. As such, he helped to “break” many records by playing them on the air for the first time in Birmingham. Thanks to him we were able to hear a lot of the New Orleans R&B and Blues songs before others in the country did and also a lot of “flip sides” of records that became hits here in Birmingham. Duke favored upbeat dance tunes featuring them on the air and at his record hops. He also gave many local area bands opportunities to play before live audiences at the dances.

Duke Rumore, along with his brother Joe Rumore, fellow DJ Tommy Charles and radio station manager, Ben McKinnon were the driving force behind the success of their stations during the hey-day of AM Radio in Birmingham. They were DJ’s who were “personalities” as much as they were record spinners, and what they said on the air was almost as important as the songs they played.

Duke Rumore was one of the best.

The Birmingham Record Collectors are pleased to honor Duke Rumore by inducting him to the Class of 2005 of The Birmingham Record Collectors Music Hall of Fame.

-Birmingham Record Collectors Website

Quotes of the Month

Good friends are like stars. You don’t always see them. But you know they are always there.

-Unknown

“If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody is not thinking.

- General George Patton

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