Birth of a Station, WOWO, Pt 4!

WOWO was now airborn and it gave us what we had been looking for. A distinctive something which would link the name of the Main Auto Supply with what we were doing, selling Day Fan Radios. So by natural right the programs were originated in the Day Fan Studio. It also gave us a powerful tool to help the dealers sell their radios. Many a time a dealer would call saying he was making a demonstration at Mr. So and So's home and would we start up the station. We would play several records and make an announcement and if we included the customer's name it generally ended up with a sale. This method worked particularly well for our dealer at Hoagland, Ed Kraft, who led the entire territory in sales for several seasons.

The next phase was to co-ordinate and obtain alent for the broadcasts. For this Dorothy Durbin, the wife of our Vice President, was selected. Her qualifications were that she could play the piano well and was interested in all kinds of music. And of course she, being a part of the Main Auto family. would hardly expect too much salary and I am sure that she did not get it to start.

Slowly but surely things started to take shape. We received no pay for programs nor did we spend any money for talent. Everything was done on a 'sort of mutual basis. The talent got the publicity, the station got the talent. A few paragraphs taken from a report to the FCC sums up the situation during the first year of the life of WOWO.

"WOWO was established early in 1925. An interesting phase of the start of WOWO is included in the forepart of this story.

The Main Auto Supply Company of Fort Wayne, who owns and operates WOWO was a pioneer jobber of radio sets and their Sales Representatives in this territory constantly reported that they were unable to make demonstrations of their sets to prospective dealers, except at night, due to the fact that in those days there were no broadcasting stations powerful enough to be heard in this part of Indiana during the daytime hours.

K. D. Ross, connected with our Radio Sales Department, suggested that a Broadcasting station be built in order that our Salesmen could telephone into the station and secure a broadcast program at a moments notice, using a phonograph for the music, thereby enabling these salesmen to demonstrate their radio sets to the dealers. This suggestion was immediately acted upon and parts were ordered to build up our first 500 watt station which required months of technical work and experimenting, but finally the station was put on the air and our broadcast programs were started in the forepart of 1925.

Like all new developments the work was mostly experimental and our broadcasting was subject to the usual praise and criticism of the public, only very much intensified on account of the great interest beginning to be shown in broadcasting. Slowly and surely the means and ways of broadcasting developed. It was necessary to start from the ground floor with the Engineering and Program Department and also the talent and features that were used on the programs.

This was extremely difficult as broadcasting was new all over the country and in this particular territory no development had ever been started to guide the personnel in broadcasting activities.

After a year's broadcasting things started to develop into a definite system. All the various factions necessary to operate a broadcasting station had by that time obtained a definite training almost entirely through the means of experience.

Great interest had by this time developed. Many factions realized the benefit of broadcasting such as Schools, Farm Organizations, Churches, Fraternal Orders, Civic Clubs, Banks, Conservatories, Orchestras, Speakers, Politicians and countless others.

Now we had a broadcasting station. What to do with it? More and more organizations were showing interest and of course there was the cost of operation to be reckoned with. Dorothy Durbin had the knack of finding good talent from Fort Wayne and surrounding territory. A great deal of credit goes to Mrs. Durbin for keeping the quality of the programs at such a high level.

As I mentioned before all talent broadcast was on a gratis basis at the beginning and the roster of musicians, singers, orchestras and specialty acts that were broadcast was quite imposing. Just to mention a few in those early days were of course our first orchestra headed by Jay Klopenstein, Linus Link who could play popular music by the hour from memory, Joe Kilgore from Edgerton, Bloyd Sarman a Baritone of note, Homer Raudebush, a musician who did much to make WOWO popular, George Aker, whose music delighted everyone, Vera Ewig and Irene Parvin, Ervin Stocks, Prof. Cafaro and his two daughters, Paul Dannecker and his fine orchestra, Margaret Hitzeman, Red Smith, Wilbur Pickett and his orchestra, Bill Bright's orchestra, Luella Feirtag, vocalist, Duke Baler, Edna Ruge, Carl Geller, vocal and piano; Margrete Centlivre, Leah Cohen Malay, piano; Chas. Verwiere Band, Fred Church, organ; and many, many others whose talents were so freely given that first year at Radio Station WOWO.

As matters progressed and the station was becoming more popular it was evident that some source of income must be found to off set the expense. At that time commercial programs were unheard of in this territory. A friend of ours, Arthur H. Kuchein, thought that he might do something along this line and Mr. Zieg gave him permission to solicit paid advertising for broadcast over WOWO. To our amazement he returned within a short time with an imposing list of merchants that would pay for time on the station. This was the beginning of another phase of the growth of WOWO.

Many baffling and strange things started to happen as the power was increased. Soon we discovered that when the station was on the air the program came in so loud over the telephone that conversation was impossible.

The telephone boys had a few rough days licking this one but they arose to the occasion and soon everything was under control. There was an iron track that the stock ladder ran on along the stairway to the basement. We got several complaints that people had burned their hand when they leaned on this track. We took a 100 watt light bulb and ran a wire from the track to the bulb and then to a water pipe and the bulb would light to normal brilliancy. This was quite a novelty and we would show customers the phenomenon and they would stand awe struck. One day a fire broke out on the second floor which was soon extinguished. We found that the chandelier had picked up the Radio Frequency waves from the antenna and had become so hot that it had started the fire. The Radio signal became so strong that we could run a loud speaker using only a crystal.

Our first remote control was from the Elk's, which was just across the alley back of the station. The first church service broadcast by remote control was the Trinity Lutheran Church, corner of St. Marys and Hoffman, if my memory serves me correctly.

As new problems arose it was a challenge that everyone accepted and if it was not solved the first time around there was always a helping hand from someone and soon the problem was licked and we went on to another. It might have been unscientific but the willingness was there.

I might go on and give the details of the work involved to get more power, or the battle to get a more advantageous channel, the foresight of Mr. Zieg in persuading the Columbia Network to use WOWO for their Midwestern outlet, but that is another chapter that I will leave to someone more qualified to write.

I would like however to tell of a contest we had. We offered a prize for the best slogan using the letters WOWO. Stacks and stacks of mail were received from all over the territory with many good slogans, but I will never forget the moment that Al Becker came rushing out of the office waving a letter so that all could see, saying ''We've got it, We've got it". The winning slogan was Wayne Offers Wonderful Opportunities. which is as true today as it was almost 40 years ago.

In the mornings when I hear the booming voice of the announcer say "This is the 50,000 watt voice of the big business of farming coming to you from Radio Station WOWO" I remember back to the time when the voice of WOWO was not so powerful but it was the realization of a dream by an Ex-Farmer. And that is the way it was in 1925.