[BC] Sylvania, Georgia

[Jay Braswell]

Bob...

That was WSYL/Sylvania, Georgia...1490 on your dial. The station went on the air in 1955 with a 150' shunt-fed tower, located about five feet from the tin, Quonset hut office/studio/transmitter building.

The station burned in the late-60's (from a jammed UPI teletype machine), and was rebuilt on the same site in what was then a very nice brick building, with an all-Gates package. It had a BC-1G transmitter (which allowed a daytime upgrade to 1kw) and a Gatesway II console, two Criterion cart decks (with a companion cart-record accessory) and two CB-500 turntables. The new building was built just a tad farther away from the tower, but, as you recall, only about ten feet.

They always had RF problems. There wasn't a production room, but the audition output of the console was wired to the cart recorder and a "suitcase" Ampex reel to reel. Most of the time, it was impossible to do production...so, they would just sign-off! More than once, I've heard "At this time, WSYL in Sylvania, Georgia will leave the air to make adjustments to our equipment...please stand-by". With the transmitter off, they would cut the spot, and then sign 'er back on.

I don't remember the unipole, but they did put up a new tower (and a new ground system) in the 80's. The new tower is about 165' feet from the building. 

Also in the 80's, there was another fire, destroying the transmitter and control room, but the building was saved. A side porch was enclosed, and it became the new control room. Sometime after the rebuild, they were then granted an FM. To accommodate the FM, they built another tower...300', located in front and to the right of the building. Needless to say, the FM RF was now a problem. As best I remember, the control was enclosed in a copper screen cage. It helped, but I don't think they ever got rid of their RF problems.

Longtime manager/owner Shirley Mahaffey was famous for adding a touch (a heavy touch) of echo to all her spots, and for adding a syllable to Sylvania. Correctly pronounced like the light bulbs, she pronounced it 'Sill-VANE-knee-yuh". 

I'd give $10,000.00 to go back to those days, knowing what I know now.

Nostalgically,
Jovial Jay 
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Bob Groome 

  Along these same lines: in Sylvania GA (hope I
  have that right) working on a 1 kW AM feeding a
  folded Unipole (skirted) AM tower within 10 feet
  of the studio in 1970; the monitor speakers would
  play the station audio with just wire hooked up
  to speaker and the other end of the wire floating
  (not hooked up to anything). Why bother buy a
  monitor amp? The match to the tower wasn't quite
  right; but it was just plain of RF energy too
  close to the studio. RF was in everything
  (turntable pres, mics, telephone lines, etc.).

  They ended up converting the tower to a 1/4
  series feed and problem got a lot better.
  Bob Groome