WEAK
WEAK – Wonders Radio
In the basement of North Wonders hall, across from the study lounge, there’s a 300 square foot closet. Today it’s crammed with a variety of items in storage. But in the 1960s and 70s it was home to WEAK, Wonders Radio. WEAK began broadcasting on 630 kHz specifically to South Campus. There were several frequency migrations, to 820 in the early 70s and ultimately to 640 kHz in 1974. The coverage area ebbed and flowed with service limited to the residents of Wonders Hall in 1972 and a re-expansion to all of South Campus (Case, Wilson, Wonders and Holden Halls) in 1974.
In 1973, the solid core door to the studios was painted with the station logo, a vintage RCA ribbon microphone with the call letters and frequency printed below. During broadcasting, the door was usually open, revealing the stations reception area and a long glass window that gave visitors a good view of the air studio. The outer office had a desk, IBM Selectric typewriter, telephone and several chairs for guests. The walls were decorated with record posters. A small storage room was set off to the right of the reception area, which held the small carrier current transmitter and a hodge podge of engineering equipment. On the left side of the facility was a security door which lead to the record library and the air studio.
By the mid-70s, WEAK had amassed an excellent collection of LPs and 45s, which had been painstakingly cataloged and cross-referenced on a thick book of computer greenbar. It was a time when the record companies provided free albums to each of the campus stations, and part of the staff’s job was to unpack and audition the daily music shipments. Each campus station had a music director who was responsible for building a weekly playlist of popular music. Mark Westcott, a WBRS graduate began his professional career as a the campus rep for CBS records.
The control room was centered around a Sparta 8-pot monaural console. An Electro Voice microphone hung on a spring loaded stand to the right of the mixboard. Two Sparta turntables were located to the announcers right. On the left was a small rack containing an ITC dual cartridge playback machine, a Crown reel to reel recorder, and a Spectrasonics compressor/limiter. Below the machinery was a patch panel that allowed the announcer to connect a variety of remote locations, network and telephone feeds and the WMSN feed to the mix board. A two line telephone sat in front of an ITC cart recorder that was located on the counter top to the left of the console. The phone numbers were 353-3842 (Business) and 353-3843 (Hit Line). The daybook, weather forecasts and other reading material rested on a three foot Plexiglas J-board atop the console. A Heath Kit digital fit snuggly between the board and the J-stand directly in front of the announcer.
It was a small, yet functional design that quickly took on the aroma (or odor) of the jock on duty. On occasion, the station manager would have to discuss personal hygiene after the staff complained about a particular DJ’s lack of shower habits.
When the station first signed on, the format was an emulation of the Top-40 stations of the day, with specialty shows spicing up the schedule. This 1968 Dave Alexander Aircheck gives a good feel for the 60s sound of the station. In the 70s, WEAK’s format was primarily “Progressive Album Rock”, with long music sets and low key announcers who used the intervals between music to talk about the artists and discuss campus activities. Most of the public affairs and sports programming came over the network from WMSN’s Student Services Building studios, but there were daily local newscasts, syndicated comedy and a weekly intramural sports report, all prepared and presented by students.
One of the station’s most popular announcers was Bernie Adams. Known as the “Mighty Cooker”, Bernie’s program featured R&B hits intermixed with his unique style of poetic soul commentary. During the Mighty Cooker’s show, the reception area was filled with his fans, and the phones rang off the hook with dedications and song requests. Bernie eschewed the show business life for a business career after college, but those who were there would never forget his calm countenance and high energy delivery.
Another WEAK promotion involved a pizza giveaway from the nearby Dominos store. Pizza Roulette, required contestants to guess which topping would come off of the roulette wheel, to earn a free medium pie complete with two Cokes. The management team, often broke and always hungry, was not above rigging the contest to favor a roommate on a particularly sparse Sunday evening.
Campus radio didn’t technically have to abide by the rules of commercial broadcasting, and we often had requests for blue material like Harry Nilsson’s “Your Breaking My Heart”, Donovan’s “Intergalactic Laxative” and George Carlin’s “Seven Words You Can’t Say on Television”. For a time, one popular program was a dirty joke contest, where contestants tried to out-do each other’s vulgarity. But these items were anomalies at WEAK. The main message was music by request, and lots of it.
