Voice of America Museum

My wife and I recently visited the National Voice of America Museum of Broadcasting near Cincinnati, Ohio.  I've known about this place for a long time and being a radio nut you would have thought I'd visited years ago especially since it's less than an hour away.  The museum sits inside the Bethany Relay Station, the original building used by the VOA from 1943 until 1994.  At the beginning of World War II, Adolf Hitler was using radio as an effective propaganda tool.  President Franklin Roosevelt needed something to spread the truth back into Germany.  Local entrepreneur Powell Crosley Jr. and his team of engineers provided the technical knowhow and soon turned an unassuming field into the most powerful shortwave transmitting site in the world.  Crosley also owned WLW "The Nation's Station" whose distinctive Blaw-Knox tower is located about a mile up the road from the museum.  VOA programming originated from Washington DC and was sent by telephone line (and later satellite) to be sent around the world via Bethany's towers.  Today the Voice of America is broadcast in 48 languages to an estimated weekly worldwide audience of over 320 million people.

Main control room

A scale model of the VOA Bethany grounds.  The towers were razed in the late 1990s but the switching matrix, where they changed antenna configurations by hand, still stands.

About half of the museum is focused on the VOA while the other half is the medium of radio in general including memorabilia and tons of vintage radios.

In 1940 Powell Crosley commenced broadcasts on WLWO, one of only about a dozen shortwave stations in the United States at the time.  Meanwhile, Germany operated 68 shortwave transmitters and Japan had 42, both of which pumped out propaganda and psychological warfare.  Crosley's experience with powerful shortwave signals made him a good choice for helping set up the Voice of America.

My wife tapping out "I-f  Y-o-u  T-a-k-e  M-y  P-i-c-t-u-r-e,  I  W-i-l-l  K-i-l-l  Y-o-u" using Morse Code.

An actual unit owned by the inventor of wireless telegraphy Guglielmo Marconi.

"This just in....I'm a radio nerd"

Both of my chins really loved this place!

I bought a t-shirt at the gift shop.  A local brewery makes this lager named after what Hitler called the folks at the VOA--"The Cincinnati Liars."

I brought a sticker to the museum to donate if they didn't already have it on display.  It was a 40th anniversary decal which can be seen here.  They seemed pleased to get it and I plan on mailing them the rest of these stickers as well.  Seems like a better place for them than in a box at my house.
 

Hawaii Vacation / KRTR

Our vacation this year was a two week trip to Hawaii--one week on The Big Island and one week on Maui.  The 50th state is just as beautiful as you've heard it is and this was probably our best trip yet. 

This banyan tree in Lahaina is the largest in the United States at over half an acre.  Amazingly, this is a single tree but banyan tree roots hang down from their branches to form new trunks and essentially becomes its own forest.

 

These sea turtles swam past us all morning long at Slaughterhouse Beach on Maui.

Our bodies were still on east coast time (a six hour difference) so it was no big deal to wake up super early and get to the beaches before most people.  This is Big Beach which is next to the mostly nude Little Beach.

A row of wind turbines.  I've always thought these windmills were beautiful in an art installation kind of way, but they're even more stunning against the blue sky and water on a ridge on west Maui.

Sunrise near the peak of Haleakala (elevation around 10,000 feet.)  It was cold at the top and we had to wake up in the middle of the night to get there on time but it was worth it.

Papakolea Beach is one of only four green sand beaches in the world.  It is surrounded by one of the most stunning views I've ever seen--this picture doesn't do it justice.  A massive wall of hardened lava, crystal blue water and green sand.  It was quite a hike to get there and a steep climb down to the beach but it's something I'll never forget.

I honestly don't remember where this was but I'm pretty sure I had just stuffed my face with two malasadas moments before.

A black sand beach at Wai'anapanapa State Park.

This is part of the Kilauea caldera which saw some major activity in 2018.  I don't know if a caldera is the same thing as a crater but these stickers seem appropriate nonetheless.

"Krater 96" KRTR is an Adult Contemporary station licensed to Kailua near Honolulu.

The JACK FM Depository

There are so many damn JACK FM stations.  I hate them.  The (usually) DJ-less "Adult Hits" stations began popping up in the early 2000s, first in Canada, then the United States, the United Kingdom and even Russia.  Most of them use the same stupid logo which seems to be a requirement if you use the trademarked branding.  It just seems like a lazy choice if you're looking to change your format, fire all your live jocks and basically become a jukebox on the radio.  Even their snotty "playing what we want" slogan annoys me along with their pride in NOT taking requests.  Screw you, Jack.

Having said that, I've decided to place all future JACK FM stickers in this single post since they're virtually the same design anyway.  I've posted plenty of JACK decals over the past 10 years which, if you're bored, can be seen here.  And here.  And here.  And here.  And here.  And here.  And here.  And here.

KJKK - Dallas, Texas

KPKR - Parker, Arizona

KLXS - Pierre, South Dakota

KJAC - Timnath/Fort Collins, Colorado

KRJK - Lamont/Bakersfield, California

KYJK - Missoula, Montana

 

 

KRWN

KRWN "Crown FM" is an Active Rock station licensed to Farmington, New Mexico.  The Four Corners is the only part of the United States where four states meet: northeastern Arizona, southeastern Utah, northwestern New Mexico and southwestern Colorado.  The area belongs mostly to various Native American nations including Navajo, Jicarilla Apache, Hopi and Ute, hence the guitar-wielding native on the top two stickers.

Radio Sticker of the Day Mailbag - CHTT

Yesterday my post office box was filled with the wonderful sight of a package of radio stickers and other goodies from Dan in British Columbia.  Thanks again my friend!

Along with the stickers were these fantastic postage stamps featuring Canadian recording artists.  The Guess Who and recent Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Rush have had major success in the US and get regular rotation on Classic Rock stations.  The Tragically Hip are tragically unknown in the States except in border cities like Detroit and Buffalo while Beau Dommage's popularity was mainly centered in Quebec.  As a postal employee, a former stamp collector, a fan of rock and roll and all things Canadian, I love that Canada Post has decided to hono(u)r these deserving bands.

A brand new sticker from a station that surely plays at least three of the four bands pictured above is CHTT "103.1 Jack FM" licensed to Victoria, British Columbia.  They've carried the Adult Hits "Jack FM" format since 2004.

NCAA Men's Basketball Championship

It's the Jayhawks vs the Wildcats as Kansas and Kentucky meet in college basketball's championship game tonight in New Orleans. The matchup features the two winningest programs in college basketball history. 91.5 KANU is the flagship station of Kansas Public Radio based at the University of Kansas in Lawrence. They signed on the air in 1952 and later became the first noncommercial FM station to broadcast in stereo. They are also charter members of National Public Radio. Stickers from KJHK, the University of Kansas' student-run station, can be seen here.

Broadcasting from the University of Kentucky in Lexington, WUKY mixes Adult Album Alternative music with programming from NPR. 91.3 FM first went on the air in 1940 (as WBKY) and was the first university-owned station in the United States. They switched their call letters to WUKY in 1989 to better reflect their affiliation with the (W)University of KentuckY.