When WJML-FM signed on December 7, 1965 that completed job one. Job two was to
build an audience and one year later, December 6, 1966 WJML-AM signed on the air.
The AM station had two limitations. First it was only allowed to operate from sunrise
to sunset. During the winter it made for a pretty short broadcast day, just shy of 8
hours during mid December.
The second limitation was it required a special antenna to direct it's signal away
from other stations using the same frequency. Those two restrictions were necessary
because the big advantage the station had was it operated with a whopping 10,000 watts.
It's coverage area was almost as large as it's big 27,000 watt FM sister. So while the
AM station was on the air, simulcasting the FM programming the station indentification
shouted loud "WJML and WJML-FM".
Another requirement of optaining the license to operate such a powerful station was that
someone who had a First Class FCC operators license had to be at the transmitter to
monitor the equipment and record the operating parameters every 20 minutes. So the
studios moved to the antenna site on Click Road and all DJ's had to hold a First Class
license.
To many people John Harrington was just a sports announcer but John was also a
visionary of what technology could do and was ready to take a risk and move ahead of
the pack.
What appears as a cute story about wanting to see a radio transmitter and
accidently finding a career in radio, he backed up his hunch on FM with plans that were
as big bold as he was. While people started discovering the great improvement with
FM receivers at home, the automobile was a tough nut to crack.
From Carl Windsor, Ph. D. Professor of Communication Studies at WWMC (90.9 FM) Lynchburg, VA
It was on December 7, 1965 when (then) WJML (FM) 98.9 first went on the air as the
pioneer FM station in Northwest Lower Michigan. John Casey was station manager, Millie
Cole was WJML's secretary, Claire Baum was the Program Director, and I (Carl Windsor)
was the News Director in my first radio job. Bill Supernaw (from Charlevoix) was the only
local announcer. Marvin Verink was Chief Engineer. The station couldn't broadcast from
their studios under the porch at the Perry-Davis Hotel as the FCC had not yet licensed the
studio-transmitter link, so the first week's broadcasts originated from the transmitter site
"atop beautiful Boyne Mountain". Needless to say it took a four wheel drive vehicle
(supplied by the Perry-Davis hotel) to get to and from the site in early December. Nearly a
year later (12/6/66), WJML AM went on the air at 1110. By then I had graduated from NCMC
and moved to Cheboygan where I was News Director (and the only on-air talent there was
for six months) at Les Beiderman's Paul Bunyan Network station WTOM TV Ch. 4 ("Top of
MIchigan Television") sister station of WPBN TV Traverse City. Since 1971 I have been a
college professor teaching broadcasting to over 6,000 students, most recently at Liberty
University in Virginia. And it all began on a chilly December morning "Pearl Harbor Day"
12/7/1965 in Petoskey.