IN THE SPOTLIGHT       

     INDEX                                      

Flashback                

What's  new               
Greetings from the
Modesto Radio Museum
Impromptu, profoundly uncomfortable, awkward
and totally unpredictable hilarious situations live on-air .

    KTRB Improvements in 1941-1942          
Tallest Wooden RadioTower in the world located in Poland.
Honolulu station reports Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941.
KDHS was an enigma to the general listening audience when it emerged on the Modesto airwaves on September 5, 1969.  The station was licensed by the FCC to the Associated Students of Thomas Downey High School.
Anyone who worked in radio or TV stations prior to the computer and satellite era,  which began in the early '80s,  will remember how the news they delivered on the air reached them.  The main source was by teleprinters connected to telephones lines being fed by a news gathering companies including United Press which later became United Press International (UPI).
   Downey High School FM station       
Teletype machines delivered the news 
After World War II, commercial development of tape-recording blossomed following development of reel-to-reel tape machines by Ampex, Magnecord and other American manufacturers.   In 1948 magnetic recording became the standard for mastering music phonograph recordings and in radio broadcasting.
Can you help? Do you have something that we could use ?  Photos, recordings, news articles?  We only need copies of what you have. You retain the originals.  Click here for more information. 
   The Story of Bill Bates and KTRB     
Guestbooks - After you have had a chance to look around our website we would appreciate you taking a few minutes to sign our Guestbook and leave us your comments.

(1) Museum guestbook
(2) Ogden's Radio School guestbook.
    Commercial Broadcast Stations in Modesto Market    
  Recreating Baseball Games    
    Equipment Spotlight      

      Radio Jingles        
    Honolulu station reports Pearl attack  
  Tallest Wooden Tower    
    Cecil's magic modulation   
Consulting radio engineer Cecil Lynch developed a concept of positive/negative waveform processing, removing it from the high level, high voltage section of the transmitter to the low level audio input.
      Guestbooks    
Sales Promotion: These microphone replicas were actually one channel radio receivers  (1360 KFIV of course in this case) used as promotional items given to advertisers who purchased a minimum numbers of spots  (commercial ads) on the station. They were popular in the 60's and 70's and employed by many stations across the country.

(Courtesy of Bill Slayter and Salty's Record Attic)
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  Airship Hindenburg explodes in Lakehurst Disaster   


   Sales promotions         

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KVFX Plays April Fools' joke

   Beyer High School's KBHI-FM       

   Google Translate      


You can translate this website into anyone of over 50 languages using "Google Translate".
      Can you help?   
       Radio Bloopers    
     KMPH AM SHUTTING DOWN     

  Tape Editing    
Visitors since 11-10-2005
Modesto, CA  95355
   GREETINGS  
Part  1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5  - 6 - 7 - RCA 77D Audio Test  -Gary Avey Biography
When KTRB started broadcasting  in 1933,  their power was a meager 250 watts and was limited to daytime only operation on 740 KHz.  Their antenna was long wire strung between two wooden poles behind their studios at the corner of McHenry and Sylvan in Modesto. In 1941 they received permission from the FCC to increase their power to 1,000 watts and to operate both day and night.  In preparation for the improvements,   KTRB bought nearly 40 acres of property on Norwegian Ave. between Coffee and McHenry.

Early broadcast automation systems were electromechanical systems which used relays. Later systems were "computerized" only to the point of maintaining a schedule, and were limited to radio rather than TV. Music would be stored on reel-to-reel audio tape. Sub-audible tones on the tape marked the end of each song.
On the night of  May 3, 1937, the Hindenburg left Frankfurt for Lakehurst. This was the first transatlantic trip of the 1937 season. The crossing was uneventful, except for strong headwinds. The airship was half full, with 36 passengers and 61 crew members (21 more than usual who were crew members in training), but the return flight was fully booked by people attending the coronation of King George VI of the United Kingdom, which would take place on May 12th at Westminster Abbey, in London.
hidden hit counter
hit counter dreamweaver
Built by Gates Radio, the "Diplomat" monaural  console from the mid-60's. Gates Radio was founded in 1922 by Parker Gates' father, Henry C. Gates. As a pioneering company, Gates invented many different pieces of equipment for the broadcast industry.
Radio jingles are those short, catchy musical interludes that tell you the name of the station, the program you’re listening to, identify news networks and other on-the-air features.   Radio jingles can be traced back to 1923, around the same time commercial radio began in the United States. General Mills' "Wheaties" was the world’s first singing commercial. "Have You Tried Wheaties?", was first released on the Christmas Eve of 1926
Bill Bates was born October 18, 1900 in Whiskey Hill, California (near Watsonville) where he attended elementary school.   He was stricken with polio at the age of 10, which left him strapped to a board for 6 months and his right leg crippled for life. His father was a major in the US Army who moved his family from the Bay area to Delhi. Growing up included picking prunes and chopping wood, which led Bill to the conclusion he must work with his head.  In 1916 at the age of 16 Bill took up radio as a hobby.  He became a licensed amateur radio "ham" operator with the call sign of  6KL, which was one of the first licenses issued in California. It was later changed to 6CF and then W6CF which he held until his death in 1969.
Beyer High School's student operated radio station, KBHI-FM, 89.9 FM came on the air on September 10, 1977. A non-commercial, non-profit station run almost entirely by students for the campus and community.  The station runs with 10 watts of power and can be heard within 5 to 10 miles of the campus, in addition to being available of Modesto Cable.  
Pappas Radio announced August 19, 2010 that it's KMPH (840 AM) in Modesto will be shutting down on Tuesday, August 31, at 9 AM. KMPH was Pappas' "replacement station" for KTRB (860 AM), which Pappas moved to San Francisco in 2006.
On April 1, 1996,   KVFX (The Fox) in Manteca, CA  played an April Fools' joke on it's listeners when the morning DJ's Bryan Suits & Cheryl Merrill did their show in Spanish (more or less). 
In the early  50's, Ventura had a professional baseball team, a farm club, in the California C League. We broadcast all of their local games live via telephone lines.  However, in order to save the expense covering games played on the road,  we would re-created them in studio, using a Western Union (WU) observer sending us the play by play via telegraphy. Another WU employee, in our station, translated the dots-and-dashes into an abbreviated script and the recreation would begin.