As a freshman at Virginia Tech, I discovered that a "bootleg" station was broadcasting illegally from Dorm 8 West. The programs of that station were mostly musical - popular music of the time, and as such played to a receptive audience. Nevertheless, I could not condone the operation, nor participate in it since it was operating illegally, and I was the holder of an FCC license. The need for a campus radio station was evident, but a "bootleg" station was not the answer. During that year, 1946, A.G. (Gordon) Thorton, Jr. and I discussed a legal mode of transmission, which was used by "Hams" during World War II when amateurs were banned from the "air." This mode was, of course, carrier current.

During our summer vacation, Gordon and I built the necessary hardware to start broadcasting via carrier current. In the fall of 1947, we started broadcasting from our dorm rooms. I had built a console with remote inputs, one of which was connected to Gordon's room. He and I took turns broadcasting music from our own libraries. Sometime during that year the "bootleg" station was closed down, leaving us as the only local entertainment. Unknown to us at the time was a move to get an official sanction for a carrier current station. We were asked to join the movement, which we enthusiastically did. Later the call letters WUVT were reserved by the FCC. The FCC could not assign the letters, since a license was not required, but they did reserve the call letters for us. Even though our "flea power" transmitter covered only three dorms in the Lower Quadrangle, we started transmitting, using for the first time, the call letters of WUVT. We continued broadcasting from my room, room 15 of Dorm 8 East, until the equipment was in place throughout the campus and in the control room in War Memorial Hall (the gym).

When WUVT had its grand opening (the official opening of the new facility), the personnel of the station were fairly well organized. The station management was generally under the auspices of the Journalism Department. The organization of the station was such that each individual had only one responsibility. No one held two jobs. In this way, the actual operation of a large station could be simulated. Also, the organization could accomodate a greater number of students desiring to be a part of it.