The Times Record from Troy, New York • Page 26

ee. in EC PARTY LINE program on Station WIIAZ in Troy is devoted In witnesses (if find's power as phone 1 calls come in from residents to Pick West, the religious broadcasting lion's program manager. The station has a variety of. programs and half of its music is bible-centered. It is owned by John a businessman who owns an advertising agency in Whealon, 111., another station in New York Citj' and a third station in flaytuwn, Tex.

All three a gospel programming. Two a sports programs have area sponsors. -V- Troy Has Religious Broadcasting Station By FRANK SHERRY Radio Station WHAZ in Troy will be a half century old next year. And the last three years plus have been radically different from (he first 45. You feel it in the atmosphere on entering the simple offices and studio on the top floor at 17 First St.

It's also obvious on the air waves at the 1330 AM band mark on your dial. For the pioneer station, which launched its first scheduled broadcast Sept. 11, 1922, and set early broadcasting records for Kensselaer Polylcchnic Institute, was bought by John M. Camp of Whealon, 111., and became a religious broadcasting station Sept. 3, 19G7.

Last June WHAZ was moved from liPf's Sage Laboratory to the present site after nearly five decades, and the familiar campus a a antenna with its twin steel towers dismantled. Pioneer Station WIIAZ, originally called a radiophone station, was eslab- lished as an inlogral part of RPI's electrical engineering laboratory for a i i students in the new communications engineering field of radio. Much of the equipment was built or adapted experimentally by faculty members. Broadcasts, from the beginning of the station's operations until the a of 1969, were Monday evenings only. Then Monday-Friday daytime opera- liens were authorized.

Through the years I1PI students became more and more involved and cultural and roe- rtalional programs replaced solely by technical ones. Tn I960 RPI's public information services assumed operations of the station. It continued sharing the 1330 frequency with WPOW in New York City. And was WPOW'S owner a Gflspcl Itadio, which bought. WHAZ seven years later.

The a i change is of course noticeable, with the new reJigiuos emphasis. The warm and welcoming atmosphere at the station now may be attributed to a a stated with conviction early in the interview by Dick West, program manager the a three years. Answer To Prayers Jle says, "I believe this station is the result of prayers for Ihc outreach of the Gospel in this area," and emphasized a each of the three full-time staff members has had "the experience of being reborn in Jesus Christ." It is evident in their quiet joyfirincss as they greet visitors, and comes through also in Heir touches with people who phone in, responding to talk programs on the air. Dick, 35, born in Port Jervis, has considerable variety in his background after attending Port Jervis High School. He worked as a a i operator and foreman in a factory.

But it was his five years as a police patrolman there which eventually brought him to Troy. While he was walking his heat one day, he will tell you in his clipped rapid speech, he received the first Gospel inspiration. He started a bookstore, and reading an advertisement for a Gospel radio station, sought a i i in a field. He feels he was led to this area and WHAZ by God. He makes his home i his wife and five children in Cambridge.

Mrs. Francelia Holmes, a native of Earlville and station secretary who helps Dick answer every one of the hundreds of letters now coming into the station's Box 784 in Troy, worked in secretarial positions in the area the last one with the Sand Lake office of the Organization for Economic Opportunity before joining WHAZ in the spring of long. News Director Daniel O'Ncil, director, is the most recent to join the staff. He is a a i of Uticn. He runs the station's afternoon talk show, Speak Your Mind, on which callers express opinions and ask questions about a wide spectrum of a con- cerns, sometimes stimulated by guests on the program, sometimes not.

Dick's morning Party Line program of conversation and music is principally devoted to matters of religion, and witness to God's power on both ends of the telephone. And Fran's Scrapbook generally attracls callers on domestic considerations in daily living. The station seeks about a 5050 balance between secular and religions programming, Dick notes, including news and sports and community topics, as well as syndicated programs on the gospel networks, like Back to the Bible. Local clergy and laymen, the Salvation Army and rm area rtsrac mission also share in many of the broadcasts. WHAZ is on the air seven days a week from a.m.

to sunset. Churches throughout the Upper Hudson listening area continue to respond to an unusual offer by WHAZ. The church's morning worship service is recorded by a staff member, using about 75 Ibs. of portable equipment, and broadcast a Sunday between 3 and 4 p.m. Many are.

the differences between the original WHAZ and now. Two former staff men at RPI a incidentally former employes in the city room of The Record Newspapers), Andrew F. Kinbacher and the late William E. Price, highlight them in historical pieces 25 and 39 years after its founding. Early History Institute men are proud of the fact that their college station was the earliest one in the nation still broadcasting under its original call letters at the time it changed hands.

Only Schenectady's Pittsburgh's KDKA, and WOR, WJZ and WEAF in the New York metropolitan area, of the large commercial stations, antendatcd it. Perhaps because of its commanding campus position on the heights overlooking downtown Troy, WIIAZ established several early broadcasting records nationally before it was six months old. Programs broadcast over its 500-watl transmitter (years later boosted to 1,000 watts) were picked up in Europe, then- 10,000 miles away in Hawaii and New Zealand. A remarkable "first" came Jan. 13,1923, WlcD Station OFCN ANSWERING PHONES AND LETTERS i Mrs.

a Holmes' job as station secretary, hut she also has her own program, Fran's Scrapbook, devoted chiefly to domestic considerations. i Calgary, Alberta, and WHAZ carried on "two-way overland a i telephone communication," overcoming all hazards of great distance a primitive equipment. That February more a 100 Sioux Indians danced to music of the RPI student orchestra broadcast by WHAZ and picked up at the Montana ranch of Lone Eagle. In June (summer broadcasting is much more difficult) Hollywood, Calif, listeners clearly heard a WHAZ concert by Boring's Hand and soprano solos by Mrs. William T.

Lawrence. It's a question whether it had an impact on the election, but WHAZ claims another record-the nation's first radio broadcast of a political speech, Alfred E. Smith accepted (he opportunity and incumbent New York Gov. a a L. Miller, Republican, did not.

Smith was elected. Local Shows Veteran listeners will recall the a i WHAZ musical program fixtures, like the Domino Club Orchestra, or the Lawrence Trio and their successors, the Studio Trio, with A. Olin Niles violin; Maurice N. Koninsky', piano, and Frank Culricala, cello. After Mr.

Koninsky died, Mrs. Evelyn Johnson Small took his place at the keyboard. So Dick Wcsl and his col- leagues inherited a proud Iradi- tion when took over A from the RPI students who were producing the daylight broadcasts some months after sale of the station to Mr. Camp. While the normal hearing area is within a 30-mile radius of the new transmitter on Van Schaick Island, Co- hocs, occasionally a i arrives from Lake George and one listener reported reception, by some fluke, in Wisconsin.

But the volume of correspondence indicates to Ihe staff that the station is fulfilling its ministry--to help listeners accept Jesus Christ as Lord Its service role is illustrated by several calls from despondent persons who said in gratitude th.it Ihe broadcasts saved their lives. The Only In Ihe Copilot District Strictly Pevo1e4 to 38-60 fv.nlns' 434-0984 Die Your Moitoi Cliorgcl,.