The Story of Public Radio in Chicago

7/31/2019 The Story of Public Radio in Chicago

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The story of

Public Radio in Chicago

Today, WBEZ is among Americas most listened to public radio

stations. It set the standard for in-depth coverage and analysis of local,

state and international news. It has honors ranging from the American

Bar Associations Gavel Award to the Illinois Governors Award for

Eldercare demonstrating the community respect for the station.

Looking to the future in the 90s, WBEZ developed a new broadcast

facility that has maintained WBEZs leader ship in public

broadcasting by providing an efficient and technically advanced work

environment that facilitated improvements in the quality and variety of

programming. It developed the foundation for todays high tech facility.

But WBEZ had a humble beginning and many obstacles to climb before

achieving this status.

This story is the journey of an ordinary person who has seen

extraordinary places and events, who has met many interesting people,

has experienced many adventures, and participated in the development

of a community treasure called public broadcasting. This is a personal

story.

Who am I? I am Carole; daughter, person, friend, aunt, cousin,

godmother, woman, human being, educator, broadcaster, manager,

organizer, Catholic, trustee, volunteer, director, traveler, writer,

speaker, teacher, risk taker, adventurer, reader, minister of care,

communion minister, driver, golfer, activist, collector, curious, honest,

happy. optimistic, pianist, shy, hospice volunteer, board member,

musician, decision maker, steadfast, impatient, leader, cook, dog lover,

music lover, detailed, thinker, determined, shopper, and student.

I am just a gal born on the south side of Chicago who has experiencedsome extraordinary adventures, met wonderful people and has been

part of the development of a concept called Public Broadcasting. I am a

very unlikely person to have started this enterprise here in Chicago. I

had no inside track in a city that favors insiders. I had no political

connections and I had no training in communications and media. Just

an elementary school teacher with drive and a dream.

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This journey has had many twists and turns. I believe that childhood

experiences influence your latter life. You do not realize this as it

happens but when you look back you can see how it all fits together. It's

good to have in mind goals or an idea of where you wish to go for your

journey but in the end it is really the journey itself that matters. Mine

has been an exciting journey and I would have never dreamed that the

many adventures that I have had would have ever been possible. I've

met many famous people, including Presidents, governors and other

politicians as well as people in the arts and I have traveled around the

world several times. I have sailed the seven seas and seen the seven

continents. The journey has been like a series of waves.

Each wave presented its own challenges and required many decisions

along the way. You can be the master of your own journey if you are

open to new ideas and try new things... You can choose the way. Myfirst wave was carefree and as a child many of the choices of life were

made for me. My parents, my relatives and my friends had a deep

influence in forming my ideas, values and aspirations for the continuing

journey. They gave me the values that I based my life on. I am sure that

I also was influenced by where I lived. I lived in the big city of Chicago

but in a quiet little neighborhood of blue collar middle class families

People always ask me how I got into radio. They think that

communications is glamorous. My usual response is that it was really

by accident. I never planned to go into radio or television (in fact

television did not exist when I was born). I was born before television,

before polio shots, frozen foods, radar, contact lenses, credit cards,

dishwashers, clothes dryers, air conditioning and ball point pens.

And I did not dream of a career in Public Radio since Public Radio did

not exist in the 30s either. Growing up in the 30s and 40s girls did not

have aspirations such as managing a radio station, let alone starting and

building a radio station from scratch. There was not much choice. I

thought that I might be a nurse, a teacher or a secretary. But thats

where it began and ended.

Well, maybe when I was five I wanted to be a Marine, like my father.

What little five year old girl could perform the manual of arms, roll a

pack, run double time, put a judo hold on someone and throw a sinker,

slider and a curve ball?

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And when I was six I wanted to be an Opera singer like Jeanette

McDonald. I loved those Nelson Eddy, Jeanette McDonald

movies. I would sing at the top of my lungs pretending to be Jeanette Mc

Donald.

In high school science and math were my favorite subjects and my

passion and I thought that I would like to become a nurse. But my

father, wise man that he was, said that I should go to college and then

make up my mind as to what career I wished to choose.

But a career in Radio, no way, not a hint. Never a thought.

Well, maybe a thought passed my mind. I was a child of radio and

listened to all the great serials of the time. Captain Midnight, Jack

Armstrong, the All American Boy, Lux Radio Theater and many more.I also listened to Uncle Bob on WIND and one day I had the privilege of

appearing on Uncle Bobs program. I was really disillusioned. Uncle

Bob was mean, gruff and not at all as I had pictured him. I received a

certificate for appearing on the program but never listened to him

again.

Also, my father was a great White Sox fan and he listened to Bob Elson

broadcast the play by play of the games. I used to pretend to call the

games. So much for radio in the 30s.

The early years

I was born on the south side of Chicago in the West Englewood

neighborhood in the midst of the depression. 1932 was a gloomy

economic year, and Franklin Roosevelt was President but it was a

bright year in the Nolan household. Carole Rita Nolan was born to

Martin Nolan and Caroline Alton Nolan. The grand total of the medical

bill for my birth was $80.00, which in 1932 was a huge sum and was

paid out to the doctor in installments over a year. I arrived at 5:17 PM

on January 28, 1932 at StBernards hospital, on the south side of the city of Chicago. My aunt

Mamie was with my mother on the taxi ride to the hospital and my

father arrived that evening. Henry Hoffman was the doctor that

delivered me. I weighed 8 pounds and 10 ounces. My first visitors were

Aunt Mamie, Aunt Lucy and my maternal grandmother Alton and

cousin Mary OMalley. I was baptized in Saint Theodores church in

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February of 1932. I have been a life long Catholic. My Godparents were

Mary OMalley and Alton OMalley.

I had a wonderful, carefree childhood. Even though it was the

depression, I had many opportunities for extra activities. My mother

and father made many sacrifices for me. At the age of three, I was given

dancing lessons. I took tap, ballet and toe dancing and danced in quite a

few recitals. The teacher was Ester Easter and the studio was at 63rd and

Ashland. I remember my mother said that since I was an only child and

very sheltered and shy she was afraid that I would be frightened to be

alone in the big class. But I went in, the door closed and my mother was

separated from me. In a short time she heard me singing the Isle ofCapri and entertaining the teacher and the class. I guess that from

there on she knew I would be out front and leading the pack

.

I also had piano lessons, starting at age three. The teacher came to the

house. Her name was Miss Guitis and I thought that she was ancient.

She had given piano lessons to my mother and all of her sisters. I

remember the first songs that I learned to play. The Indian war dance

and Bobby Shafto. Of course my parents were very proud of me and I

had to play for all the relatives. So my days of performance were

started. When I was eight my mother decided to give me piano lessons

at the Chicago Musical College in downtown Chicago. I took lessons

there until I was twenty years old. My favorite teacher was Eva J

Shapiro and she was very strict. I was in numerous recitals and I have

played in Curtis Hall, Orchestra Hall, in Chicago, in Milwaukee and in

Ames, Iowa. During my high school years I was admitted to the

Chicago Musical College and received a teaching degree. I gave piano

lessons to neighborhood children while I was a college student and had

about 20 students. I gave my own recital at the Chicago Musical College

when I was eighteen.

During the 30's and 40's, each Chicago neighborhood was self-contained

and everything needed was within walking distance. Chicago

neighborhoods could be thought of as small towns. My mother would

put me in the buggy and walk up to 63rd and Ashland where we would

visit the dime store. Every week we would go up there and she would

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ask me what I would like and every week I would pick out a new book.

This began my love of reading and the joy of finding out new things. I

forgot to tell you, the dog, Cookie, accompanied us on every walk.

Except for an occasional trip downtown, for shopping or a movie, we

found everything that we wanted in our own neighborhood.

We lived at 61st and Damen .in a little red brick house that belonged to

my Grandmother Alton. My childhood seemed pretty ordinary. I had

several little girlfriends on the block. I saw them almost everyday and

we would call each other not on the phone but by going outside into the

back yard and calling Oh bar bar ra OR Oh Charlotte. There was

no texting. Our activities were simple. Playing in the sandbox, going to

the park, collecting papers for the salvage drives and playing make

believe. We would play store by collecting empty boxes and placed

them on homemade shelves. Remember this was the depression and wedid not have expensive toys so we made do with what we had... Much of

this helped me when I had to build WBEZ from nothing. We had to use

our imaginations. We also had great birthday parties. My mother

would make a big cake with lots of frosting. We had favors and played

games. Simple but we had fun. No Chuckie Cheese for us. Somehow I

always managed to be the leader of the group.

I had a very happy childhood surrounded by my aunts, uncles, cousins,

grandmother and friends.

My father was born in Lockport, Illinois on May 3, 1900 and moved to

Chicago in 1906. My mother was born in Chicago on July 28, 1899 and

moved to Damen Avenue in 1904. My parents knew each other from

the time they were six years old. They both attended the Charles Earle

School. My father lived on Winchester Avenue and right around the

corner on Damen Avenue, lived my mother and her family. They went

to school together, made their First Holy Communion together and their

confirmation. My Uncle Sam, my mothers brother, was my fathers

best friend.

My father was a wonderful man. He was my hero. I thought that heknew everything and had done everything. He was strong, handsome,

dependable, loving and everyone admired him. My cousin said that

when my father was courting my mother, he never used the gate to

come into the back yard. He always jumped over the fence. He was in

the Marine Corps at the time so he must have been quite a sight in his

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red white and blue uniform with cape flying in the wind as he flew over

the fence.

My father had a great album of pictures that he had taken in China. As

a Marine, he was stationed in Peking China in the 20s I was probably

the only kid that could identify the road to the Ming tombs with the

stone animals, the Temple of Heaven and the Great Wall of China.

. William Nolan, my fathers father was born in Lockport, Illinois in

1863. He had a slight limp .When he was 15 years old he had blood

poisoning and the Doctor took out the heel bone. He was a plasterer

and worked hard all his life. He married Anna Beatrice Sauber in 1887

in St. Aloysius Church in Chicago, Illinois. They had two sons, my

father, Martin Francis and Thomas Herbert who was twelve years older

that my father. My grandfather brought a house on the corner of 61 st

and Winchester, Chicago, IL and the family moved to Chicago in 1906.My Uncle Tom studied to become a carpenter. My grandmother

Sauber was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1863 on February 2nd,

Candlemas Day. She was a German scholar and could read and write

German. She spoke the Luxemburg German as well as High German.

My father said that she had a very hearty laugh. She worked hard on

the farm in Lockport and raised potatoes. My father said that she could

also saw and drive nails as well as my grandfather. She died in 1921 as

the result of the flu and my grandfather Nolan died in 1924 from heart

failure.

My uncle was twelve years older than my father and he moved away in

1913 and married Cora Dennick. They lived on the southeast side of

Chicago and raised three children, Fred. Bill and Betty Anne.

My father enlisted in the United States Army in World War one in 1917

and fought in France. He served in the corps of engineers, Company F,

116th Engineers and was wounded (gassed) in the Battle of the Argonne

Forest November 5, 1918. He spent some time in a hospital in Belgium

and received a Purple Heart as a result of the mustard gas wounds. He

also fought in the battle of St.Michiel.

When he returned home he worked as a draftsman. He then enlisted inthe United States Marine Corps in 1924 and had a tour of duty in

China. He returned home in 1929. And married Caroline Alton in 1931

on Saint Patricks Day. My father went to work for Standard Oil of

Indiana located in Whiting, Indiana. He was a stationary engineer and

worked in the power plant that made electricity for the oil refinery.

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We lived in Saint Theodore's parish. When someone asked where you

lived, you would always reply with your parish. Life on the Southside

was defined by your parish.

Shopping was within walking distance and for special items we would

take the streetcar to 63rd and Halsted. This was the largest shopping

area outside of the loop. We had Sears, Hillmans, and Wieboldt's. I

remember that Sears had the first escalator. Hillmans food store was

in the basement of Sears. There was also a restaurant in Hillmans but I

cannot remember the name. But I remember going to the restaurant

frequently. I also remember that Morris B. Sach's had a store on

Halsted. It was a very large clothing store and it sponsored a weekly

radio program featuring local talent. It was called the Morris B. Sachs

Amateur Hour. The neighborhood Movie Theater was the Ogden at 63rd

and Ashland and the big Movie Theater at 63rd and Halsted was theSouthtown. The Southtown was a beautiful theater with a large pond in

the lobby with live swans. There was also a playroom with a slide a

merry go round and other toys where we would stop after the show. We

would go to the movies every Friday and then stop by the China Clipper

restaurant for supper. My father, who had been stationed in China

would order in Chinese and speak Chinese to the waiters.

All my relatives lived in the neighborhood, including my grandmother

Alton, my two aunts, my uncle and my cousins.

There was a strong sense of family and security growing up in this

neighborhood and I didn't feel as if I was poor though we really were,

since everyone else was too. This was the depression. No one had a car.

Everyone walked or took the streetcar. We did not take vacation trips.

I walked to school everyday and walked home for lunch everyday and

my mother was there and fixed my lunch.

My mother was the youngest of five children. Her father, William B.

Alton was born in Uniontown Pennsylvania and was an orphan. Hisfather, Samuel Alton was killed in the Civil War and his mother; Leatha

Christopher died shortly after that. He grew up in an orphanage and

learned the printing trade. My mothers mother was Mary Jane

Shearan and her mother Bridget Fitzgerald. Bridget was born in

Limerick Ireland and she lived with the family.

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My mother had three sisters; Edith Ellen, Lucy, Myra Marie and one

brother, Samuel.

My mother grew up in West Englewood and went to the Charles Earle

elementary school. She did not have an opportunity to go to high

school. She had to go to work and help out the family. Her father had a

stroke when she was fifteen and she went to work sewing lampshades.

My mother was a great self-taught woman. She loved to read, cook and

garden. She was very practical and had a great sense of humor. I was

an only child and she devoted her life to my father and me.

I attended Charles Earle Elementary school through the fourth grade

and then we moved to 55th and Wolcott where I attended and graduated

from Henderson Elementary. The Chicago Public Schools were very

good at this time and I had some great teachers. I loved my first gradeteacher Helen O Donnell and named by doll Helen. My third grade

teacher Miss Staford smelled like an orange and I remember the

handwriting lessons to this day.

I attended and graduated from the Academy of Our Lady High School

(Longwood). The School Sisters of Notre Dame were the teachers and I

had some outstanding and inspiring teachers

One of my favorite teachers was Sister Josephine who was my chemistry

teacher and who really enkindled my love for science. I would stay after

school and work in the lab and she encouraged me to pursue a career in

chemistry.

I also remember the many Mission parties that we had at Longwood

and this helped me learn how to raise money which came in very useful

as I pursed my career in Public Radio.

Longwood had a beautiful campus and I remember my four years there

fondly. I lived a distance from Longwood and rode on the old red

rocket streetcar everyday to get to school/

My four years at Longwood were unremarkable and I was an average

student.

I attended DePaul University and majored in chemistry. The school

was on the Lincoln Park Campus and in 1950 there were only a few

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buildings. DePaul was known as the streetcar college and I took the

L to school everyday.

I was on the bowling league, in the chemistry club and I was the

President of my sorority, Delta Zeta Gamma. My part time job was

working in the library. I received a good liberal arts education and

when I graduated in 1954 I decided to go into teaching since chemistry

jobs for women were limited.

My childhood experiences and my education prepared me for what was

about to come in my career. I had no idea what was to come.

While I was growing up during the 30s and 40s on the south side of

Chicago, radio was developing nationally and locally and shaping future

events and my destiny in radio. Educational radio was beginning to take

shape.

The Radio Act of 1927 established order among existing radio stations

and stated that radio air rights were owned by the public. Congress

stated that the private use of the airwaves was to be granted by license

to radio station operators and that the stations should be operated in

the public good and as a service to the community

By 1934 Congress had established the FCC, Federal Communications

Commission as an independent agency of the federal government. Their

job was to establish and regulate guidelines for telecommunication and

radio station operators.

Radio became a popular form of home entertainment in the depression

era of 1929-1939 and radio stations and newly formed radio networks

had a number of hours devoted to educational programming.

The history of public radio/educational radio in the United States is the

history of the individual stations. The licensees of the stations were

mainly institutions of some kind; state, universities or public school

systems. Very few were community licensees. But all had the mission ofserving their community and many such as Chicago obtained their

licensee because of some event or need in the community.

The history of radio in Chicago indicates that the Chicago Board of

Education was considered one of the outstanding educational radio

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stations in the Midwest and WBEZ was a pioneer in the use of radio as

part of the educational teaching program.

In September 1937 there was a polio epidemic in the city of Chicago and

the superintendent of health ordered the public schools closed. The

superintendent of schools got together with the commercial radio

stations and teachers used the radio to teach lessons to children at home.

The daily newspapers printed the lessons and education by radio was

born. When the children returned to school, the Superintendent of

schools thought that radio was a great tool to use to educate children

and the school system applied for a license. It took a few years to

complete the applications and to build the station, but on April 19, 1943,

WBEZ went on the air for the first time. While the station was being

built, the school system set up a Radio Council. The Radio Council was

headed by Harold Kent, who later founded Hawaii Public Radio. Theradio council pioneered in the use of radio for education. While the

station was being built, the Council produced educational programs and

broadcast them on local commercial stations. Many of the scripts were

bound by a later WPA project. As part of the Radio Council, a student

workshop was developed using high school students from the Chicago

public schools. This is where many of the students got their start in

radio. Ken Nordine, a famous voice over personality started at WBEZ

as part of this group. The High School Saturday Party as it was called

was directed by George Jennings.

In 1944 educational leaders appeared before the FCC and asked for the

allocation of broadcasting channels by local school systems, colleges and

universities. They asked for channels located in the radio spectrum

immediately adjacent to the commercial FM band. Today you will find

most Public Radio stations between 88 and 92 on the FM band.

The Second Wave

My first job was at the Gunsaulus School on the south side of Chicago,and I was assigned to teach first grade. In 1954, the Chicago Schools

had more than enough teachers and all new people, like me, were hired

as FTBs or full time basis substitute teachers. I was lucky and I was

assigned to a vacancy. I could have been assigned to a day to day

assignment. The teacher whose place I was assigned to take had been

at Gunsaulus for forty five years. I could have been sent around to a

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different school everyday but this was my first bit of luck. There were

very few vacancies.

I arrived early on the first morning and the first person I met was the

school clerk, Katherine Des Chatelet. She told me to sit on the bench

and wait for the principal, Anna Mc Nichols. In walked a large woman,

with graying hair pulled back in a bun and with straggles around her

face. She had a slight tick. She had on a print dress and grey sweater.

She said I would be the day to day substitute for the first grade and she

took me to Room 212. There were 48 seats bolted to the floor. There I

was new and with 48 six year olds. We had one day to prepare the room

and get ready to greet the new first graders.

I survived and I spent four years teaching first and second grade. I

loved every minute and I still hear from former students.

I was asked to take the upper grades and I taught sixth, seventh and

eighth grade science and music.

One day I was teaching science. I was using cabbage water to show

students how to test for acids and bases by changing the color of the

cabbage water by adding vinegar and then baking soda. In walked the

District Superintendent. She liked the way I was approaching the

teaching of science and the next day I was asked to come downtown and

work in the Department of Curriculum as a Science Consultant. My

career path was set. You may wonder how I got involved with radio but

you will see there have been many twists and turns to the journey.

In the Department of Curriculum of the Chicago Public Schools, my

boss was Evelyn Carlson. She gave me many opportunities to broaden

my skills and not only was I a science consultant; I was also involved in

all television activities for the Chicago Public Schools which gave me a

foundation for developing Chicago Public Radio.

As a science consultant, I traveled to schools across the city and taught

science to teachers. I had a wonderful time developing workshops and

teaching teachers to use common everyday substances to teach science

concepts and to make science fun for the students.

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I also was involved in developing and writing Curriculum Guides for

teaching science and I developed activities for elementary school guides

and for the high school chemistry guide. The Chicago schools had some

of the best curriculum guides for teachers and teachers and

administrators from all over the world came to the Department of

Curriculum to see how the guides were developed. I conducted many

tours of the department and schools to demonstrate how the guides were

used in the classroom and how they had been developed by committees

of teachers.

Along with my science duties my boss gave me several television

projects. One was MPATI, Midwest Program for Airborne Television

Instruction. This was the fore runner of satellite transmission and you

will probably laugh when you hear how this project was conceived.

Every morning a plane took off from Montpellier Indiana and flew overa five state area beaming instructional television programs to schools

with special antennas. The programs were developed by Purdue

University. But if there was a thunder storm or rain storm, the plane

was grounded and there was no lesson that day. This was a bold

adventure but it lasted a very short time.

Another television activity was CAST, Chicago Area School Television.

CAST was a nonprofit organization operating out of Channel 11 in

Chicago. Instructional television programs were selected by a

committee and then broadcast on channel 11 during the school day. The

committee was composed of representatives from channel 11, Chicago

Public Schools, Archdiocese schools, and the suburban school districts.

Instructional television programs were available in all subject areas and

were produced by stations across the country. Schools paid a

membership fee t o CAST to use the programs and to receive materials

for classroom follow up

Instructional television was popular in the 60s as an educational aid

and appeared to overshadow radio education.

Another project was the Cluster Closed Circuit Television Project. This

project was cited by the Rand Corporation as the most innovative and

successful television project for inner city youth. The studio school,

Byrd school in Chicago was equipped with originating studio equipment

and four surrounding schools were connected by coaxial cable. The

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master teacher taught the lesson in the studio and the neighboring

schools received the program and the classroom teachers followed up

with individualized activities. For example we were able to use a master

science teacher and then teachers in the classroom could use materials

presented to follow up with the students. This project was so successful

that we developed five other clusters throughout the city.

Another project was the establishment of 20 high school television

studios and curriculum materials to teach television production to high

school students.

All of these special projects helped me to gain knowledge that I would

use to establish public radio in Chicago.

Radio, particularly educational radio had a difficult time during thefifties as television competed for the publics time. Television had taken

over and noncommercial radio needed something to set it apart. Radio

was so overshadowed by television that it was nearly left out of the

federal legislation formalizing public broadcasting as we know it today.

It seemed no one cared about radio.

Noncommercial stations were on their own and had no network

structure to hold them together. They had very little programming of

national interest. Something had to be done.

By 1967 national leaders realized that educational broadcasting was

being held back by a lack of network structure. It was under funded

and under utilized. Most of the radio stations were student run and

unlike television the stations did not have the capacity to produce

quality programming on a national level. After much study and debate,

Congress provided for a way to build a national financial and

distribution infrastructure for noncommercial stations with the Public

Broadcasting Act of 1967. There was even debate as to whether or not

to include radio but at the last minute radio was added. In 1970National Public Radio was created as a national production center since

no radio station had the capability of producing national programming.

There was no great fanfare; it seemed no one knew nor cared that NPR

had been established.

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Chapter Two

In 1971, my boss Evelyn Carlson asked me to take over the management

of the Board of Educations radio station, WBEZ. The Director of

WBEZ, Elizabeth Marshall had been with the station since the

beginning in 1943. She had followed George Jennings as Director and

developed an outstanding educational station. However, times had

changed and the station stood still. When I arrived at WBEZ the station

was on the air 5 hours a day 5 days a week and 35 weeks a year. It was

playing old tapes from the forties and fifties and putting new opens and

closes on the tapes each year. Programs being broadcast had titles suchas Uncle Dan from Froggy Hollow, the Singing Song Lady and Battle of

the Books. And marching music was broadcast between each program

as radios were moved from room to room. Great for the forties but not

the kind of programming for children of the seventies.

The engineer did not put the station on the air at the same time each

morning. Sometimes the station went on the air at nine and sometimes

at ten after nine. You could never be sure when the engineer would

arrive. The Pledge of Allegiance to the flag or the Star Spangled

Banner or America was the opening tape each morning and can you

imagine each child in the public schools standing beside his or her desk

singing and reciting the pledge. The station was caught in a time warp

after years of being a leader in educational radio. The staff was not

aware that they had entered the television age and they required new

ways of using radio.

The staff was not motivated and they were accustomed to two hour

lunch breaks with shopping at Fields. There was a record librarian

and no record library or collection. There was no live programmingonly old tapes. The signal was weak and unreliable and the equipment

was outdated. The station was housed at two locations; the office

personnel and the production people were at the LaSalle location and

the transmitter, control room and studio was located about 6 blocks

away on Adams. The Adams location was strange space since the

elevator went to the thirty ninth floor but the transmitter, studio and

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control rooms were on 40 and 41 so you had to walk up a flight of stairs

to get to W BEZ. There was little supervision at Adams and when I

arrived no one could tell me how many people worked at Adams.

The stage was set for change and I was the change agent and not a

popular person in the minds of the WBEZ staff.

The station was licensed to the Chicago Board of Education and subject

to all the rules and regulations of the institution. The personnel that

could be hired were either teacher certified or subject to the rules of

civil service. Civil service personnel were either temporary or certified

by exam. Thus it was difficult to hire or fire personnel with the

qualifications for the radio station. We needed producers, writers,engineers, and announcers. It was also difficult to purchase equipment

and supplies since the budget did not include radio equipment. I had to

learn to serve two masters. I was an employee of the Chicago Board of

Education and had to follow the mission set out for educational radio

serving the Chicago Public School system. And I was also expected to

build a community radio station and build a full service radio station in

Chicago. It was like walking a tight rope.

WBEZ needed a complete overhaul. New equipment was needed and

there was no line in the budget for equipment. You could not get a clear

signal due to a weak transmitter. The antenna was in the shadow of the

Sears tower. The station needed a new transmitter since the old one was

using vacuum tube technology. We also needed personnel who wanted

to develop innovative programming and we needed the financial means

to achieve these goals. The staff was less than cooperative and as I

asked for file to see what had been done I was told Oh that is filed

under swimming meaning I would never find that file or any file from

the past.

WBEZ needed to be reinvented. No one could imagine the internal

struggle necessary to create Chicago Public radio. As I look back on my

career, I think that I always tried to remain optimistic and I looked at

all the problems as opportunities and challenges. I dont believe in

managing by crisis but sometimes crisis provides opportunity.

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I had to develop a strategy for getting things accomplished and along

the way I developed ten commandments for getting things done I

dont know where I found these rules or if I developed them over the

years but I used them as a yardstick to get things done many times.

1. Come to work each day motivated and filled with enthusiasm and

ready to implement your dream.

2. Circumvent any orders aimed at stopping your dream.

3. Do any job necessary to make your project work.

4. Find people to help you; people who share your dream.

5. Follow your intuition about the people you choose and work onlywith the best.

6. Work underground as long as you can. Publicity triggers the

corporate immune mechanism; have your dream formulated

before you unveil it.

7. Prepare your self to run the entire race.

8. Be true to your goals but realistic about ways to achieve them.

9. Remember, it is easier to ask for forgiveness that for permission.

10. Honor your sponsors. Keep your boss out of trouble.

More than once in my career I had to act on something without

permission in order to move ahead. I know that I made mistakes along

the way but I never made the same mistake twice. I took a lot of risks.

The mission of the radio station was to provide programs forkindergarten through high school students since the station was licensed

to the Chicago Board of Education. But if w e wanted to be part of

National Public Radio we had to develop a full service radio station for

Chicago. So I had to select a staff that would be creative in developing

new programs and new ways to reach this audience.

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One of the first things that I had to accomplish was to get a new

transmitter so that the signal could be heard. The station was

broadcasting at 18,000 watts. I needed to find money to purchase the

right equipment and hire personnel to install and operate the

equipment. I also needed to hire personnel who would develop new

programming that would appeal to children in new ways.

I decided to attend a conference where I could network and find out

what was happening across the country so that I could apply for some

grants. At the conference I met people from The Corporation for Public

Broadcasting and the Department of Health Education and Welfare

who helped me prepare applications for funding new equipment and

personnel.

The radio station had three first class engineers who had been workingat the station for about 30 years and several student operators. I had to

encourage the engineers to think about new technology and develop

specs for new equipment so that we could submit a proposal for a grant.

I had to get their trust and encourage them to change.

I got some help from engineers who worked in the television bureau and

we submitted a proposal that was funded and we received $100,000 for

a new transmitter. A new transmitter and antenna was purchased and

the power was increased to 39,000 watts. Now W BEZ had a great

signal and could be heard within a 100 mile radius. But now we needed

new programming and we needed to join NPR.

Membership in NPR required that WBEZ be on the air at least 14

hours a day 52 weeks a year. We received a grant from CPB to expand

program services and on October 2, 1972 WBEZ became part of

National Public Radio and began broadcasting 14 hours a day, seven

days a week. Did anyone know or care? I doubt it. We did not havemoney to promote the station. So who knew that we existed? NPR was

not the polished jewel that it is today so we were all off to a rocky start.

All Things Considered was the first and only program offered by NPR

and we broadcast the program at 5PM every evening and can you

believe it, we rebroadcast the program every morning at 8AM. A news

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program rebroadcast 12 hours later. That shows you how naive I was

in 1972. The dues to NPR were $100.00. Quite a bargain.

As we analyzed the other stations in the area we decided that the music

format would be jazz since there were three classical music stations on

the air. Most public stations broadcast classical music but we needed to

fill a void if we were going to develop an audience. I am surprised that

I was even thinking of format since in those days educational radio was

thinking in terms of separate programs, unrelated, and put together

into a schedule. Here at WBEZ they were strung together by marching

music during the daytime hours.

I had the marching music removed from the schedule. I hired a teacher

and asked him to develop a new series of instructional programs. He

was a ventriloquist and he set up a dialogue with his dummy Little K.This was an innovative use of the medium. He also developed

worksheets for the students to use in the classroom. In keeping with the

mission of the licensee we also established classes for elementary age

children, Audio Jam and for high school students, the WBEZ student

workshop.

The program director was interested in jazz so I made him the jazz host

and off we went with the new programming. Not much strategy

involved in coming to this decision but necessity ruled. We needed 14

hours of programming each day and by 1973 we were on the air 18

hours a day. Tony D was the program director and a typical Board of

Education employee. He wanted to record his program during the day

and broadcast it in the evening. I tried to explain to him that this was

radio and it should be live. We had a continuing battle.

We limped along trying to develop local programs and carrying the

flagship of NPR, All Things Considered every night at 5. Did anyone

know or care about WBEZ in those days? When people asked where I

worked and I would tell them WB EZ, they would ask where that is.Where can I find WBEZ on the dial?

University stations were in the majority of the NPR membership at the

national level but there was a small group of instructional/educational

stations that tried to develop childrens programming. This group tried

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to fulfill the mission of their institutions while also providing a full

service public radio station for their communities.

In 1975, WBEZ received an award for excellence in Childrens

programming from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Chapter 3

As early as 1975 there was an effort on the part of some broadcasters

both at the national level and the local level to establish another full

service station in Chicago. Some at the national level believed that

educational/instructional programming belonged on a sub channel andthat such programming should not take up one of the frequencies set

aside for public radio. I was determined that we could do both. Why

not develop a service for children as well as adults? The frequencies

from 88 to 92 on the FM dial were reserved for educational use and in

Chicago, WB EZ, with an educational mission and WMBI with a

religious mission were the only stations with full service capacity. The

rest of the band was filled with small 10 watt stations operated by high

schools and universities. Most were student run.

WBEZ had full service capacity and was operating at 39,000 watts from

the top of the Bankers building at Clark and Adams and could be

heard within a hundred mile radius.

If WBEZ was to succeed it needed a more professional staff, better

technical equipment and more public relations and community

involvement. WBEZ needed a better location for its antenna since the

space on the Bankers building was in the shadow of the Sears tower.

One day I attended a conference at which Roger Isaacs of the PublicRelations Board spoke. The theme of his speech was always ask for help

from the experts. After the speech I went up to Mr. Isaacs and asked

him to help me promote WBEZ. He set up an appointment for me to

meet his Vice President, Betty Stearns.

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I met with Betty and we became great friends and she helped me

develop a public relations strategy for the radio station. Betty and

Roger also assisted in the development of the ground work to establish a

community advisory board.

From there on I always asked for help and I developed a number of pro

bono alliances with experts in the field of public relations and

promotion which helped propel WBEZ forward. I also made many cold

calls asking for pro bono assistance. I was successful in quite a few

cases. In 1975, WBEZ won an award from the Corporation for Public

broadcasting for promotion.

I was always looking for opportunities to form alliances to help WBEZ.

In January of 1978, a great opportunity presented itself. WEFM, theZenith radio station, and one of the classical music stations in Chicago

was to be purchased by General Cinema Communications. GCC

planned to change the format to rock This meant that one of the three

existing classical music stations on the dial was about to disappear. The

classical music audience was upset and a citizens committee filed suit

against GCC. As a result of a long battle, GCC offered WBEZ a grant

of`$150,000 to provide the audience with classical music. This grant

provided WBEZ with one announcer, one producer and the entire

classical record collection of WEFM and permitted WBEZ to broadcast

classical music every morning. With the additional personnel and the

classical record collection we could eliminate the replay of All things

Considered every morning and broadcast live music. This was a win/

win situation for all. The audience was pleased and WBEZ was now

able to broadcast 24 hours a day. The announcer was Dick Noble, well

known and liked classical music broadcaster in Chicago. Dick

celebrated 50 years in broadcasting while he was with WBEZ.

WBEZ continued to serve its licensee by developing innovative

childrens programming and won several awards for Lollipops andStuff and Audio Jam. But like other public, educational stations it was

stringing together a series of unrelated programs, classical music,

childrens programs, jazz, folk, talk, blues and new age and news.

There was no identity. Did anyone know where to find public radio on

the dial in Chicago, probably not?

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Money or lack of it was a constant problem. How can you build

audience without a consistent sound and how can you raise money

without an audience, this was the dilemma we found ourselves in as we

attempted our first on air fund raiser.

The first attempt at fund raising took place in 1978. Dick Noble, Jim

Nadyer and I got on the air, gave out the pledge number and hoped that

someone would be listening and would call us. We had four telephones

for our pledge line and used the front office for pledge central. Much to

our pleasant surprise, the phones did ring and we raised a grand total of

$25,000. Not much in todays totals but a great start.

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The Story of Public Radio in Chicago

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