WUOM Noise Generator, Program Guide (December 1974)
[If you are looking for the Program Guide, scroll down.]
The noise generator was used to record a short period of noise at the beginning of the audio tapes that WUOM distributed. This allowed the stations to tweak the azimuth of their playback heads, since, when there is an alignment difference between the recording and playback heads the high frequencies go first.
WUOM, the station operated by the Regents of The University of Michigan, recorded a great many of the lectures, musical performances, and other special events taking place on-campus.
Many were truly outstanding, like Cleve Backster ("The Secret Life of Plants") who hooked up plants to EEGs and saw the plants react to various situations like when someone in the room simply *thought* of hurting the plant.)
Another was George Wald who, along with Ragnar Granit and Haldan Keffere, received the 1967 Nobel Prize in Medicine for their discoveries concerning the primary physiological and chemical visual processes in the eye. Dr. Wald spent his later years speaking out against both the Vietnam War and anti-democratic tendencies in the Protest movement ("A Generation in Search of a Future").
The station also recorded world famous musicians like Arthur Rubenstein, Vladimir Horowitz, Alicia De Larrocha, and many others whose names do not immediately come to mind. Most of these performances took place in Hill Auditorium, an old auditorium with great acoustics.
These programs were distributed by tape
because it was before satellites; even before National
Public Radio (NPR). Nowadays, most of the formerly great public radio
stations like WUOM simply play (and replay) programs distributed by NPR, APR (American Public Radio), and PRI (Public Radio
International, not to be confused with the political party that formerly ran
The people I remember most from my days at WUOM include Music Director Evans Mirageas who did much of the music recording at Hill Auditorium and hosted Music of the Masters five nights a week. (I even learned to enjoy Opera Night on Thursdays.)
Stephen Skelly was the Program Director who was known as much for his acerbic wit as for his musical taste.
Joan Parris was our Music Librarian (and a very nice lady).
Fred Hindley was our News Director as well as an institution in his own right.
Geof Bently, and then Stan
Wiggins, were our newsmen as they both, respectively,
went to
One of the weekly commentary programs we
recorded for distribution was hosted by Ross Wilhelm (Professor of Business
Economics,
Hazen Schumacher hosted the very popular series "Jazz Revisited" . Hazen was also the Director of The University Of Michigan Broadcasting Service, of which WUOM was a part. Early in my broadcasting career Hazen gave me some very good advice.
"Jed," he said, "don't say 'Shit' on the radio."
Neal Bedford was our Station Manager.
Evelyn Titus and Doris Patterson were our Administrative Assistants.
The other engineers I worked with were Oliver Hibbert, Stan Dilley, Barry Legion, Bill Hickey, Jim Paffenbarger, Art Beutler, George Cacciopo, and transmitter engineers Frank and Alex.
Ray Klatt was the WUOM Chief Engineer and Fred Remley was the Technical Director of The University of Michigan Broadcasting Service.
Jed Margolin 1/6/2001, revised 2/2/2002, 4/20/2004, 6/4/2005
WUOM Program Guide - December 1974
People who listen to Public Radio might not remember what public radio was like before it was taken over by NPR.
My old friend and WUOM colleague, Barry Legien, found the WUOM Program Guide for December 1974 and scanned it for me. (Thank you, Barry.)
The Program Guide was printed on sheets of
paper which were then folded and stapled in the middle. Scanning the pages puts
the pages out of order so I have formatted it as follows: