[BC] KSMU McLendon History Dallas

[ChuxGarage@aol.com]

> >That was probably the Harmon Transmitter.   Did they still use  640 kHz.  
> How 
> >did they tie all the LPB's together?  When I was there  the telephone 
> company 
> >controlled all the cables in the steam tunnels and the  school wold lease 
> >pairs.  When we were talking about leasing pairs the  phone company was 
> going >to hit us with $30.00 per month per building.  We  tried to talke to the 
> building >fplks about running our own wires but they said  no but they might 
> consider 
> >us having an outside contractor do the work.   Still too much money.
> 
> >When we approached them about the FM and trying to reapply in 1961  they 
> >wanted a plan and a faculty advisor.  Barney McGrath was in charge of  the >
> studio building and they used the main studio to rehearse for the ocassional 
>  TV 
> >productions.  Barney wanted to have nothing to do with being an advisor  
> for 
> >radio..  No Bob Hope facility at this time no TV cameras.  The  Speach &
> Theatre 
> >department had very few broadcast courses mainly an old  radio drama course 
> >and a radio production course.  The rest was aimed at TV  since if was 
> closer to 
> > the real theatre.  Barney didn't want to relinguish  control  of the 
> building 
> >based on what the students did with the FM and AM  earlier.

The transmitters were linked together using rented phone lines from S. W. 
Bell. They were just dry pairs with no equalization.  If I recall each one was 
about $6.50 per month.  It was still a large phone bill, considering you could 
buy a steak dinner for $1.00 back then.  Some transmitters operated on 640 and 
others were on 620, in an effort to keep them from interfering with each 
other.

Wen I arrived in fall of 1965, the old Quonset hut studio had been abandoned, 
but Barney McGrath did let me in to see it a couple of times.  There was an 
old black rack mounted transmitter in there, probably about 6 or 8 rack spaces 
high.  It had a triangular emblem on the front, but I don't remember the brand 
name. It may have been Harmon.  Over one summer break, probably 1967, when I 
arrived back on campus, the building was gone, having been replaced with a 
large hole in the ground for an outdoor swimming pool.  I don't know what 
happened to the contents.  There was a lot of records and a little equipment in 
there.  It's probably in a landfill somewhere.

By my Sophomore Year, Barney McGrath became my personal Faculty Advisor.  We 
became pretty good friends, but I could never persuade him to reapply for the 
FM license.  The eventually did sometime after Barney retired in the 1970s, 
but they applied for he call sign KSMU, which was already in use by Southern 
Missouri University.  Or so the story goes.  The administration breathed a sigh 
of relief, and never reapplied. The students who were pushing for its rebirth 
eventually graduated and went away.

At one point, I was Chief engineer. During that time Barney McGrath was the 
Faculty Advisor for the station.  He quickly passed that of to whoever was the 
new guy in the Broadcast-Film department. I think he always figured, "Those 
crazy kids will get me in trouble.  I'll get fired and lose my retirement 
benefits."  I liked Barney though.  He was a truly nice guy. 

Eventually, I became the Station Manager. During that period, I made the 
discovery that by shutting off about half of the transmitters, the signal actually 
improved.  One transmitter did a pretty good job of covering two dorms, and 
there was a lot less weird squeals, hums and buzzes caused because none of the 
transmitters were synched together on exactly the same frequency.  Not only 
did this clean up things a lot, but we got to substantially reduce our phone 
bill.

I understand that their current system uses the campus cable TV system to 
distribute a signal to each dorm.  It's demodulated, and fed to the transmitters. 
I believe they are using a "leaky coax" FM system these days.  


> 
> >Charlie Van Dyke went to SMU,  Ralph Baker, Darryl Parker,  Hal  Martin,  
> >Paul Holley,
> 

Quite a few broadcasting luminaries went to SMU. It might be fun to make a 
list someday.  Glen Mitchell and Bob Morrison were there when I was as well as 
Mike Spears, Charlie Van Dyke, and a ton of people whose names I can't remember 
at the moment. 

Chuck