G[mloulnal - Quarter Century Wireless Association

"KANS Atop Hotel
Lassen, Wichita"
By: Robert M. Crotinger, 621 W. Paseo
Prior to graduation from High School in Iowa (May, tS43) I
volunteered for the Coast Guard. At that time, and at age 18, I had
a commercia.l radio license and was an avid radio "ham". For this I
obtained an authorization from the Coast Guard for induction into
that service as a radio operator. I passed the Coast Guard physical,
but was then rejected by the induction cenrer because of a rapid
heart.
Finding myself back on the farm, a-nd having been told that the
militarywould take me afterwomen
and chiidren, the door was now
open for me to enter that most fascinating
of occupations, radio
broadcasting. I started writing letters
and soon had ajob with KANS
in Wichita, Kansas as a
been a victim of polio and his withered Ieft arm hung useless at his
side. However, chuck was a very good control operaror and had a
"feel" for a good show. Like me, radio was his life and I was very
fortunate to have Chuck Lucy as my first f655-hs \Mas a great guy.
Sports on KANS was the domain ofVic Rugh, and I accompanied
him, as engineer, on many evenrs taking place outside the studio.
One of these was the weeklywrestling from the \Tichita Forum.
rants. There was a diner a couole to-be youngish Chief Engineer (Bob) is seated to the left of
blocks away that served a chicken the lady in the back row. Isn't it interesting that all the men
fried steak dinner with mashed po-
wore a suit and tie?
"transmitter/control
operator".
I recall that one ofthe villainous pugilists used to pin his opponent
to the mat and then take his faise
- teeth out and rake them across the
guy's back. One night his opponent
flipped him and the teerh went flying
over our heads and into the audience.
Years later, and thousands of
miles away, I would find myself televising
this sort of thing.
Arriving in Viichita during the
heat of the summer, my first mistake
was in renting a room on North
Topeka Street across from a bar. After
a month of listening to "pistol
packin, mamma" from their jukebox,
I moved to another rooming
house. I was taking a correspondence
course from Nilson Radio
School and needed to be able to con-
I was delighted with my new
job and the financial srabiliry ir provided
enabled me to marrymyHigh
School girl friend, Henrietta. \7e
bought a 2-bedroom housewith detached
garage on the northern outskirts
of rhe ciry. The roral price was
$2,700 and it had a FHA loan payable
at $20 per month. I made the
$700 do*n paymenr and sparsely
centrate.
furnished the place by selling my
The room cost me $5.00 p.,
1930 Model A for $250, using all I
week
.enrl
and T:re I ate ell all meals in i, restau- ,..ri,,_ KANS Christmas Party 1943 in the rnain studio. The soon- had saved as a kid selling tomatoes
along highway 92 west ofSigourney,
and all I had saved working the first
6 months at KANS. A couple years
tatoes, peas or corn, a large roll with
honey, cole slaw, and the coffee was included. The price was thirryfive
cents. I actually was doing quite well, since my base pay was
later we sold the place for $3,000
and bought a much nicer one in west \fichita for about $4,000.
Take note Baby Boomers, that's the way prices were in the eariy
$35.00 for 40 hours and I usually got five or six hours overtime at forties.
time and a haif
The next notable event happened about 3 months after I got
KANS was located on the top floor of the Lassen Hotel, in
downtown \fichita. On the roof was a 180-foot LeHigh tower. In
married; Chuck Lury took a job with Boeing Aircraft. This left me
as the chief, and only full-time, engineer. I practically lived at the
the control room the 250 watt transmitter and two 6 foot racks of station for about a month until we found somebody. In any event, I
equipment were direcdy behind the operator, to his left were two found myselfto be chiefengineer ofa radio station at age 18. I had
turntables and in front of him the console with all the switches and finished the Nilson Radio School correspondence course. At that
controls for creating the programming. The announce booth was time there were no colieges or private schools teaching broadcasting.
offto the right and the announcer did nothing but announce. The Everybody in radio was a radio "ham" or had taken a correspon-
operator looked through a large window into the main studio in dence course, some not even that. The only college degree that came
which Charlie Butcher and the KANS orchestra played for our one close to being appropriate was a Bachelor of Science in Eiectrical
hourJong morning studio show.
Engineering and I only knew ofone person who had one. So I en-
The other nvo stations in'Wichita were both 5000 watts-we rolled for the best correspondence course from Capitol Radio Engi-
were only 250-but we had NBC. Remember that there was no neering Institute.
television - radio had it a1l. People gathered around their radio every In the early forties the tape recorder had not yet been invented,
night to listen to Fibber McGee and Molly, Red Skelton, Fred Allen, so when it was necessary to delay a broadcast the only way it could
Bob Hope, etc. In the afternoons the airwaves were filled with Back- be done was to make a disk recording. This was done on 16-inch
stage \7ife, Just Plain Biil, and Ma Perkins. KANS, with its local
coverage, the NBC network, and the able management ofJackTodd
blanks with an overhead lathe supporting a sapphire cuning needle
driven by an electromagnetic transducer. The record revolved at 33
was a tremendous success.
1/3 R?M and one sidewould hold 15 minutes ofprogramming, so
The chief engineer was a man named Chuck Lucy. Chuck had by using two ofthese you could go back and forth between them
48 QCWA fournal - Summer 2001