The WABC Information Page

By The Late Steve Owen © 1999

WABC Music Radio, PO Box 19.Ter Wolde.The Netherlands.

Steve Owen (Also known as Keith Warren and Jan Van Jaeger) has died in September 2007.   Condolences to his friends and family.   In recent years he supplied me with some excellent archive recordings of local radio stations some of which can be found HERE.  

(Jim Lowe)



See Also R. Morningstar CLICK HERE

Summer '99 .... Transmitters .... Response .... Presenters .... W.A.B.C .... New Transmitter Design

Introduction

In June 1st 1999, I got myself a personal computer and my first thing was to find out all about the internet. When connected, my first contact was with Roger Dee of Station M fame.

After a while I had a go at surfing the web, great fun this finding everything that I wanted.,Soon I was surfing around looking for free radio web sites,hungering for radio information.

I came across many websites from the UK and around Europe and the rest of the world,I went into the American side of the pond and discovered things such as KNER,PAMS Production of Dallas and many more. While browsing around I stumbled across a radio station from NewYork that broadcast from the 1950's to 1982 and featured DJ's such as Dan Ingram, Ron Lundy and many more.After listening to the audio archive it took me back to the early days of medium wave DXing.

I remember listening to Dan Ingram through the static when he did late night programs and Ron Lundy with his catch phrase (Hello Luvs!). These DJ's became big household names through out the states north and south and into Canada,the music format had a special magic about it,akin to the 1960's offshore pirates and as Lazzer 558 became in 1985.

And yet again as in August 14th 1967 in this country the Government closed them down,but in the states,the year!..,1982,was the known as "The Day The Music Died", because of changes in broadcasting Music Radio 77. WABC broadcast from 09:00am to 12:00pm on the dot there was thirty seconds of silence and then a new chapter in American radio was born "Talk Radio WABC". This station no longer is broadcasting it's music.

Summer 1999

In 1999,the month was July an idea was hatched,to start a radio station on Merseyside,but what to call it and where to find DJ's. It was then in roundabout way suggested to transmit on short wave, but what of locations?, we needed a location. Anyway until this problem was solved the project was shelved. It was after August 29th 1999,Station.M.International made a brave attempt to broadcast a Tribute to the late

Tom Lodge (not the Caroline DJ) who ran SMI with RogerDee and Dave Wilson,Eric Monaghan and the rest of the crew. In September of that year plans to revive WABC were made, a search for a mailing address was found and the next quest was to find high powered stations were sought to relay our programs,we were offered a 200kw outlet in St PetersBurg for $100 for six hours transmission times. But at that time there was not enough cash to say yes to,we were offered another option to use the transmitters of SWRS but they use Single sideband as well as am.

So again plans were shelved until a later date.It was not until December 1999 that a transmitter was obtained, a well known firm manufactured the unit,it has a built in stereo encoder,we were to encounter more problems along the way, because Christmas was just around the corner it was too late to get an installer to install the mast and aerials.

Transmitters

The transmitter/encoder power supplies were made ready and a make shift aerial was constructed, it stands approxamately 15 foot above ground level and we did some tests and it seem to work ok. The station came on late Christmas eve,and was on and off until Boxing day,the station continued on 106.7mhz stereo signal was on the air.WABC ran until 4th January 2000, during the evening of the 4th free radio extracts were broadcast and a phone number was given along with an email address and we were suprised by the number of calls that we got,we thought that we would not get very far with the aerial the hight that it was.

Response

We took about 104 phone calls and 53 emails,but because we were both very tired due to lack of sleep we made good progress. WABC will return in Easter and summer holidays and hope to be able to use 106.7 mhz again as we now have some jingles with frequency id's, we wanted to use 99.8 or 99.9mhz but Burt Williams was on 99.8mhz so that was out of the question.During the easter holidays we hope to be on medium wave as well as programs going out on shortwave at a remote location.

Presenters

The DJ's for WABC at the time were as follows; Dr Boogie, John Knight, Dave Rogers, a guest from Germany Frank Markert (Ziggi.S) and myself Steve Owen.at the Christmas time there was Dr Boogie and myself running the station because John Knight could not make it due to family commitment and Dave Rogers and his mate went on holiday and did not even let is know that were going, and Franks tapes did not get here in time because he finished his tapes too late due to having a bad cold.

World.Alternative.Broadcasting.Company

WABC means to our radio station "World.Alternative.Broadcasting.Company", some what different to the original WABC of the NewYork fame, For our shortwave outlet we are waiting to here from anyone that is interested in putting together an-international station, we are waiting to hear from a couple of Dutch DJ's, to see if they are interested and also with the invaluable help from our German address keeper who is hunting down any DJ's from Germany, Holland, Sweden, Denmark, France and from anyone any where around the world. It is a very ambitious project that we hope that will work out,in the mean time we will be testing on VHF/FM within the next month on 106.7mhz if free,and hopefully on mediumwave using non-valve set.

New Transmitter Design

The new design uses mossfets,the design was from a person who does not wish to be named, but this transmitter has been used 40mb 7mhz,power output was in the region of 140watts erp. For use on topband it can deliver 170watts continuious. Two will be combined to produce around 340watts but more tests are to be carried out hopefully in time before Easter,failing that it will be ready in time for summer, so thats the short story of WABC Music Radio 106.7.

The next time we are on the air,we will be heard much better at greater range,and with more power. More information will be available as and when a new chapter is to happen,our email address is:

and our mailing address is;

WABC Music Radio Po Box 19.Ter Wolde.The Netherlands. 

See Radio Morningstar CLICK HERE

Home 

Powered by counter.bloke.com