This Week In Amateur Radio
Each Week on HitOldies, we present something truly “far-out”!
“This Week In Amateur Radio”
…is a one-hour news program which deals with the topic of Amateur, or “HAM” Radio. Most of you have heard of ham radio. Maybe YOU are currently licensed and you’re wondering why a station that plays a form of Oldies music airs a show dealing with the Amateur Radio Service? Perhaps your uncle, or one of your friends’ parents was a licensed ham radio operator. Well, however it is that the topic of ham radio interested you enough to click on this link and come here to read all about it, I thank you for coming.
I’m the HitOldies Owner/Program Director Steve “West”. The quotation marks are there because “West” is the name I use on the radio. Truth be known, since I’m giving out my ham radio callsign, that “West” name isn’t what’s shown when one looks up my call letters. Hey, radio is all about theater of the mind, right? ANYWAY… I am a licensed Amateur Operator and my callsign is K1FRC. The main reason HitOldies airs a news program about the Amateur service is because of me. See, because we are programming 690 WADS with the audio of HitOldies, part of the programming requirements from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that we have to adhere to is public-service. We actually fulfill the public service requirements with the program that airs at 9am Sundays, but I thought, since TWIAR is a news program that covers the topic involving a licensed communications service, that this would enhance our commitment to public service. After all, there are many hams licensed to the Derby/Shelton/Ansonia area within the footprint of WADS who probably would enjoy hearing this program. But, take WADS out of the picture, and HitOldies serves an audience that mainly spans all of the United States AND Canada – specifically, the New England, southern Quebec (Sherbrooke) area, and there are literally hundreds of thousands of ham radio operators that I’m sure enjoy “This Week In Amateur Radio”
I suppose the other reason TWIAR airs on HitOldies is, I’m one of the news reporters.
Read this week’s stories on the TWIAR website HERE.
LISTEN TO THIS WEEK’S EDITION OF TWIAR BELOW
HAM RELATED LINKS:
ARRL stands for the American Radio Relay League.
Wikipedia Description: The ARRL is the largest membership association of amateur radio enthusiasts in the United States. Headquartered in Newington, Connecticut, the League has been actively serving the Amateur Community since its founding on April 6, 1914 by Hiram Percy Maxim. Besides housing ARRL Headquarters, this location is also home to Maxim’s original Amateur Radio Station, W1AW. Guests can operate this station, contact the League for more information.
Click here to visit the ARRL website.
The Communications Term “QRZ” means “Ready to Copy” (or, receive, according to the U.S. Navy Radioman’s manual) is mainly used to look up callsigns, however, this site also maintains Amateur Radio Logs for thousands of hams who may or may not also have offline station logs at their own home station location (“QTH”). This is an excellent resource for all Hams.
I really think that every radio station should have a cool logo. Let me thank the guy known as “The Real Mark James” – a former HitOldies jock who should STILL be on the air with us, for creating a logo that fits my somewhat large Amateur Radio Station Call Letters. Yeah, my station is pretty big… small room, LOTS of radios and computers!
Why visit K1FRC.com? I dunno. Its just another personal ham radio website. A lot of hams don’t have websites, they only have a presence on QRZ. The fact that my ham radio site is constantly out of date and needing an update just proves that I shoulda stuck to my QRZ page. I really don’t have the TIME to edit yet another website for myself. But, its there and I paid for it, so what the heck. I’ll figure out something. I’ll post my QRZ station LOG. Now THAT will impress somebody… lol.
For no other reason other than the fact that we haven’t highlighted this much on the HitOldies site, THIS is the event that put HitOldies ON THE MAP!
I PERSONALLY had the idea to perform a re-creation of a bit of programming from 1987-1988. Something which has remained in the hearts and minds of great radio personalities from the nation’s NUMBER ONE market, along with the millions of listeners who were carried along in this magical broadcast. Originally conceived by former WNBC New York Program Director Dale Parsons, and quite literally nurtured into existence by my dear friend, former WNBC ‘jock’, “Big Jay” Sorensen, the WNBC Time Machine was quite literally, itself, a pristine recreation of the format heard during the 1960s and 1970s at crosstown top 40 station 77 WABC. Not only was the recreation authentic, right down to the very plate reverb unit installed at the transmitter site, but the format with NBC’s performers at that time, in MY opinion (and that of others) was BETTER than the original! If that was even possible!
If the manager of a radio station gets a hairbrained idea for a performance, a show, a re-creation – what have you, and he wants to do it right, the best (and possibly the ONLY) thing he can do, is to contact the original performers, and ask if they would be willing to join you in doing the show again. THANKFULLY, Dale Parsons graciously offered to give his advice, and even do a couple of hours on the air with us.
I contacted almost everyone whom i thought was still living who was on WNBC radio in the 1980s, who might want to play in the waters one more time. Even BETTER, the performances done by our own HitOldies Air Staff were fantastic! They pulled it off and came out looking like superstars! Just listen and find out! I’m proud of EVERY SINGLE PERSON who went on the air here, from the old WNBC (AM) veterans, to us HitOldies jocks – and many of US have more than 20 or 30 years on-air experience, too!
THIS was the result! And it’s available for you now to hear again, archived for the web’s eternity at the radio archives at Airchexx.com. Click HERE.