The Beaver Broadcasting Club
The BBC was the Beaver Broadcasting (or maybe Broadcasters) Club. Yes, it was
the Radio station for the college, but when I joined it, (I think I was one of the first
Harris folks to join it) the club had lost its spot on the dial and thus did not really
"broadcast". We had a studio on one of the upper floors of Finley and I ran wires
down the outside of the building to a big lounge on the main floor. We installed
speakers there, and then did "radio" shows from upstairs. We mostly did music
including classical, jazz and folk. I recall that our biggest problem was setting the
volume and I ran a second set of wires and with some stolen telephone handsets,
rigged up an intercom. We literally sent someone to the lounge and set the volume
via their instruction. I think I made the Dean's List (the bad one!) once when the
volume was too high and some complaints came in.
We once recorded a great interview (man on the street style) about a then current news story, and NBC radio actually put it on the air!! I do recall recording a blue grass group, live in the Film Institutes studio- working like a dog to edit the tape and then having it stolen before it aired!!! No backup!
(Bob Woll)
Yup! I was one of the founding members. During my tenure I was Station Manager, Disc Jockey, Program Director and, I think, President. I can't remember the parties but we once recorded an interview at Columbia University that included a well known member of the Communist Party. We scheduled it for rebroadcast but the Dean of Students (Dean Peace, I think) learned of it and forbid me to broadcast it at CCNY. Seems there was a state law at the time that prohibited members of the Party to speak at any public institution (how times change) and the Dean decided that a recording of an interview was the same as his actually being there and threatened me with expulsion if I defied his order. Well, discretion being the greater part of valor I disregarded freedom of the press and caved. Imagine that happening today? It would be in every newspaper and TV broadcast. Guess I was too early for my time.
The best part of being Program Director was the free records that the recording companies sent to us to play on the air. Unfortunately, that stopped when the FCC decided that the recording companies could not give away anything that encouraged the playing of recordings. This, you may recall, was the crux of the "Payola" investigations of radio and TV in the late 50s/early 60s.
That's all I remember other than David K., Bob Woll, and I think, Neil Goldman and I were part of the BBC.
(Jack Calabro)
We once recorded a great interview (man on the street style) about a then current news story, and NBC radio actually put it on the air!! I do recall recording a blue grass group, live in the Film Institutes studio- working like a dog to edit the tape and then having it stolen before it aired!!! No backup!
(Bob Woll)
Yup! I was one of the founding members. During my tenure I was Station Manager, Disc Jockey, Program Director and, I think, President. I can't remember the parties but we once recorded an interview at Columbia University that included a well known member of the Communist Party. We scheduled it for rebroadcast but the Dean of Students (Dean Peace, I think) learned of it and forbid me to broadcast it at CCNY. Seems there was a state law at the time that prohibited members of the Party to speak at any public institution (how times change) and the Dean decided that a recording of an interview was the same as his actually being there and threatened me with expulsion if I defied his order. Well, discretion being the greater part of valor I disregarded freedom of the press and caved. Imagine that happening today? It would be in every newspaper and TV broadcast. Guess I was too early for my time.
The best part of being Program Director was the free records that the recording companies sent to us to play on the air. Unfortunately, that stopped when the FCC decided that the recording companies could not give away anything that encouraged the playing of recordings. This, you may recall, was the crux of the "Payola" investigations of radio and TV in the late 50s/early 60s.
That's all I remember other than David K., Bob Woll, and I think, Neil Goldman and I were part of the BBC.
(Jack Calabro)