Do you remember? In 1972, American Electronics Laboratories, based in Lansdale, PA, advertised the new FM-12KD and FM-25KD (12kW and 25kW) FM transmitters. These transmitters boasted a two-tube design with a grounded grid final amplifier (3CX15000) and tetrode driver stage (4CX1000K), automatic filament voltage control, automatic power control, solid-state control circuitry, a solid-state exciter and power supplies, and VSWR protection. The transmitter was unveiled at the 1972 NAB convention.

That was then

WHAS-AM, Louisville, KY, signed on July 18, 1922. Like most early stations, it changed frequency assignments several times, finally staying on 840. By 1932, the station was licensed for 25kW operation. In 1933, the power was increased to 50kW. In 1938, the station owners built a new transmitter site in Eastwood, KY.

The photo shows the transmitter room as it looked about the time when it was built. On the left is the Western Electric WHAS transmitter. On the right is the FM transmitter for what would become WHAS-FM. This transmitter was likely the experimental station for W9XEK at 45.5MHz. In the middle is the console for the Western Electric transmitter. WHAS, which was co-owned with Courier-Journal newspaper, experimented with transmitting an early facsimile system that would transmit the data to receiver-printers in people's homes. This transmitter, licensed as W9XWT, was behind the FM transmitter.

Hanging above the WHAS transmitter are the licenses of all the engineers of the station.

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WHAS photos and information provided by Scott Cason. See moreat

www.qsl.net/wb4wsb

.

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Do you have information and pictures of a station from radio's early days?
Tell us about it for an upcoming installment.

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Sample and Hold

A look at the technology shaping radio

Internet radio listening continued to rise in 2001.

* the 10-week base period is an average of the weekly total time spent listening from October 30, 2000 through January 7, 2001.
** Index values are for an entire week ending on the date listed above.
Source: MeasureCast Internet Radio Listening Index 2001

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