This is written mostly from memory. It includes events that were major milestones in WUVT history or events that the engineering staff were heavily involved in during the time period from Fall 1968 to Fall 1977. Where I have used exact dates, I either had some paperwork with the dates or could relate to another event at the same time. All other dates are approximate to the best of my failing memory. Undoubtedly, I have left out some major event or someone who had a major role with the events mentioned (you can forget a lot in 20-30 years). Additions and corrections are welcome.

The late 60's and early 70's were an interesting time. It was the time of the "Cold War", the Viet Nam conflict, the moon landing, and a lot of unrest at America's colleges. It was a time of tremendous growth for Virginia Tech and the surrounding area. Tech's name was changed from VPI to VPI&SU and Blacksburg grew with the tremendous increase in students moving off campus. The town annexed a large portion of Montgomery County, tripling in size. Many houses and apartments were built. The Blacksburg bypass, the Christiansburg bypass, and the missing section of I-81 from Dixie Caverns to Christiansburg were built. Many new buildings were built on campus. It was also a time of tremendous growth for WUVT.

In September, 1968 when I arrived at Tech, it was a time when AM radio had nearly all of the audience. Although FM had been around for years, few people had FM radios and car FM radios were non existent. Most FM's at that time were full time simulcast of an AM partner or ran only easy listening or classical and often were automated. Almost all Top 40 music was on AM. There were a couple of good Top 40 stations in Roanoke at the time but neither had FM partners. The FM stations in Roanoke were easy listening or simulcast "middle of the road" format that generally did not appeal to most of the students. The New River Valley AM stations were mostly daytime only with mixed formats that appealed to the local residents but not to Tech students and the two area FM's at the time were simulcast of the AM's.

Although the trend to live off campus was beginning, most of the students still lived on campus in the dorms. The concrete and steel construction of the dorms at Tech made AM reception difficult. Since WUVT was Carrier Current, the signal came right into the room when the broadcast AM could not. FM could be received in the dorm rooms, but as mentioned, the formats of the time were not the choice of most students. This made WUVT-AM the station that nearly all Tech students listened to. The merchants in Blacksburg that depended on Tech students for much of their business advertised heavily on WUVT and some sponsored remote broadcast from their business location. Organizations depended on Public Service Announcements to get notices to students. With the PAMS package that had been purchased during the previous school year and news from Mutual radio network (courtesy WNRV and WRIS), WUVT sounded much like a major Top 40 station, only with younger sounding voices. WUVT was generally live from 6AM to midnight. During the overnight hours, WUVT rebroadcast WSLS-FM, Roanoke (a middle of the road station at that time -- now WSLQ).

In the fall of 1968, Squires was undergoing its first renovation. During that renovation, WUVT broadcast from one of the old school buildings across the parking lot from Squires (this is currently the TV-Film building). A lot of work was done that year to improve the distribution system. Most of the twisted pair had been replaced with coax in the Lower Quad from the transmitter in Owens around to Pritchard. During the '68-'69 school year, the twisted pair in the remainder of the Lower Quad around to Campbell as well as the twisted pair in all of the upper quad was replaced with coax. Although Squires was technically closed, The WUVT Engineering staff did have access to the building on Saturdays to begin construction of the new studios.

In September '69, WUVT moved into the new (nearly complete) studios in the remodeled Squires. The move occurred over the break between Summer School and the Fall Quarter (Tech was on the Quarter system at that time) and was coordinated by Bob Weber. When the Fall Quarter began, the studios were in good working condition although there were some loose ends and trim work to complete.

The biggest event of the fall of '69 was the sign on of WUVT-FM. Carlos Roberts was the driving force behind the creation of WUVT-FM. It had been in the planning for some time before it went on the air October 6, 1969. Lee Hall was selected as the transmitter site since at that time, It was the highest easily accessible site on campus (Slusser has not been built). WUVT-FM had a much different format from the AM. AM was mostly TOP 40 with some small blocks of Country, Soul, Psychedelic, and Easy Listening. FM had large blocks of Easy Listening, Jazz, Classical, and to a lesser extent, Psychedelic. FM operated from 4PM to Midnight and to 2 AM on weekends. Although only 10 watts, it did cover the town of Blacksburg and some of the surrounding county.

There were other big events during the 69-70 school year. I do not remember exactly when it occurred, but WUVT-AM was placed on one of the channels of Blacksburg Cable TV that could not be used for TV. This gave the entire town access to the audio for AM although it was on TV channel 10. During the winter quarter of 69-70, work was begun to expand AM to Radford (which was a mostly woman's collage at that time). By the Spring Quarter, all but 3 of the dorms had been wired and WUVT-AM went on the air to most of the Radford campus using a dial up telephone circuit to get the audio to the transmitter. During the Summer of 70, the remainder of Radford had been wired and AM served both the Va Tech and Radford campuses and at some point a full time link from the phone company replaced the dial up connection. I do not remember how long AM service lasted to Radford, but that service was discontinued because merchants in Radford did not embrace WUVT as those in Blacksburg had. Also, sometime in early 1970, a second PAMS package was purchased.

At the beginning of the '70-'71 school year, AM used Studio B while FM and Production shared Studio A. The Air Lock wall was moved down the hallway to include Engineering and the future studio C. The AP Teletype (nicknamed FRED - Frequently Read Editorial Device) was installed in this area during the '70-'71 school year.

Mike cuts the hole for Studio C On-Air Light

Photo by Bob Ayers

During the Winter Quarter, construction was begun on the new Studio C for FM. Bob Ayers was in charge of building Studio "C". The studio was completed in the spring with FM moving in. At the same time, AM moved to Studio A and production got full time use of studio B.

At the end of Summer School 1971, I did what so many other WUVT staff members did--- I flunked out! I still remained in the area and maintained close relations with WUVT until late 1977. In Jan. '72, I began a job with channel 27 in Roanoke commuting from Blacksburg.

During this time, WUVT bought a home made (but FCC accepted GNM-69 - GNM were the initials of the guy that built it in 1969) power amplifier for FM from Georgia Tech. I believe that Craig Jackson picked it up while returning to Tech from a co-op job with NASA in Huntsville. During the '72-'73 school year I began work on the engineering portion of the application for power increase. John Corley completed the financial portion. The application was filed with the FCC on June 13, 1973 with a correction on antenna gain filed July 18, 1973. A short time later, something rather interesting happened. Virginia Western Community College in Roanoke had a radio station, WVWR, that was state supported and had paid announcers. WVWR ran a Kilowatt or so from an antenna on the roof of one of the buildings and was on a 2nd adjacent frequency from WUVT. Although we did not know it when we filed the application, WVWR was also planning a power increase and move to Poor Mountain, the site of all of TV and most of the FM stations in Roanoke. The Community College system had spent a lot of money to have their application done by consulting engineers while WUVT had spent nearly nothing to have volunteers complete its application. When WVWR filed their application, it bounced because of an interference problem on a 2nd adjacent frequency.

The WUVT-FM power increase was not big enough to cause WVWR a problem at their Roanoke location, but their proposed location and power on Poor Mountain would cause a problem to WUVT with the 650 Watt ERP facility (the 2nd adjacent rule did not apply to 10 Watt stations). Since WUVT's application had been filed first, it was given priority and protected as if the Construction Permit had been granted. Apparently, it hit the fan between the Virginia Community College System administration and the Virginia Tech administration with the Community College administration insisting that the WUVT application be withdrawn. However, The Tech administration did not give in. As a result, WVWR had to pay for a new study and find a different frequency for their move to Poor Mountain. The WUVT-FM application was granted to increase power to 650 Watts Effective Radiated Power. WVWR was later sold to Va. Tech Foundation and is now WVTF.

In May '74, channel 27 went dark and in June '74, I went to work building WQBX 710 KHz (now WFNR) in Christiansburg which went on the air in September '74. In October '74, I went to work for WBRA-TV Channel 15 (PBS member) in Roanoke. I was still commuting from Blacksburg.

During 1974, the Georgia Tech power amp was tested on the air. However, the home made antenna that WUVT-FM had used with 10 Watts, could not take the 425 Watts from the amplifier. The antenna burnt up and WUVT-FM was off the air that fall quarter until a new antenna could be bought and installed. Also, the construction permit had to be modified for the new antenna. On December 31, 1974, the new antenna was installed on Lee Hall under the direction of Dave Landers, and the power amp was successfully tested on the air. In January 1975, WUVT-FM went back on the air with 735 Watts Effective Radiated Power. Approximately a year later, WUVT-FM went stereo.

In late '75, I moved to Salem, VA, but I still came to Blacksburg 3 or 4 times a week through late '77. During this time, I also did some work for Blacksburg Cable TV and served as acting Chief for WJJJ/WVVV for several months. I did go to Virginia Western Community College in Roanoke 1975-77 getting an Associate degree in August '77. Finally, in late October 1977, I took a job with PBS in Washington, DC and moved to Springfield, VA. This marked the end of my 9-year close relation with WUVT. In 1980, I went back to school at George Mason University in Fairfax, VA, finally getting my B.S. in 1986--18 years after I started at then-VPI. Although George Mason had a student radio station, I never went near the place!