This is what it looked like around Nov/Dec in 1954. In the orginal photo
the calander on the wall can be read.
KTKT was, I think, without question "the" pop station in the city. It
had personalities like Chuck Blower, Frank Kalil, Bill Kelso.
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A 250 watt Gates. Not a lot even then, but it covered the city with room
to spare. Of course Tucson was a lot smaller then.
The station was a family operation in those days. Tom Wallace Sr. was the
boss, Tom Jr. took care of the technical end and George handled everything else.
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This was a 3000 watt GE transmitter on 99.5 Mc. Tucson's first FM station,
it's operation was on a shoe string. Not seen in this photo but added later
in the empty rack on the left was a "Music-Cast" sub-carrier that carried
background music that could be sold to stores and offices.
I started in 54 as a volunteer in the FM station. Later on I was added
to the regular pay roll at the smashing rate of $1.25/hr. I worked the evening
shift 7 to sign off. On Sunday night I would put the station off the air about
11pm and then go over to the AM side and run the board for Frank Kalil so he
could go into the other studio and study for his Monday classes at the
University of Arizona.
The FM side of the station was pretty quiet as a rule, but we had one
regular we all knew as "Mrs. Fisher". I guess she knew a lot about classical
music (that's what we played on FM then) and if you made a mistake in pronouncing
a title or someone's name she'd be on the phone and just chew you up one side
and down the other. I got to know her a little bit because she caught me a
lot and after a while she eased up on me and we'd chat about things other that
my mistakes.
The station call sign you see above the clock in the picture, I made out
of pieces of felt I scrounged from my mother's sewing basket.
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