After the War - F.C.C. Radio License

Some of us from the Chicago area began to talk about the post war days and making plans. Two of my close friends, Bob (Mac) McEwen and Bill Barlow, both from Oak Park, were about ready to go back to Chicago.

I had been studying for months for my F.C.C. Commercial Radiotelephone License, that would allow me to become a broadcast engineer after O.S.S. Helen would quiz me on the question and answers (Q & A) for hours preparing me for the exam. I was confident I was ready for the exam.

November 22, 1944. Back in Chicago, back to West Congress. I went downtown to the F.C.C. office in the Post Office, passed the exam, then joined the Elextrician's Union, went to work at Majestic Radio up on Division Street, who was still making communication gear for the army, was waiting on a call from the union for a job as Broadcast Engineer, made trip down to Hammond, Indiana, to a little two-by-four station, they wanted a part time engineer, wanted no part of that.

February 9, 1944, went to work as first shift engineer for WSBC, first licensed to Willard Storage Battery Company, thus - WSBC. They shared studios with WGES who had their transmitter, 10,000 watts, out in Elmhurst in West Chicago. WSBC studios and transmitter was on the ninth floor of a building at the corner of Western Avenue and Madison Street. The tower was on top of the building. Ed. Jacker was chief engineer for both stations.

Tim Marsh at the WGES console. 1944.

WGES was primarily Polish and Yiddish language broadcast. WSBC primarily Italian and Black. WGES and WSBC shared the same frequency but shared studios on the same ninth floor. Part of the time I would open up for WSBC at 6am with "Waiting for the Sunrise." This Jewish fellow, Peter ______ (somebody) did the announcing, we would broadcast mostly Irish programs to the Irish community on the near west side. Had one black (raised in Memphis) who would introduce black records and sell ads to the black community. WSBC would sign off at 2pm then we would trot down the hall to the WGES studio and control room and fire up. In the control room we also switched network lines for NBC when they fed West, East or South. Remember back in the old days of radio when NBC, New York, wold say "now we switch you to Chicago" and sometimes all you would hear was an open circuit buzz, likely the engineer in the WGES control room failed to switch the patch cord. Of course that never happened on my watch - well perhaps once.

As WGES was primarily Polish and Poland was still under German control, the United States Government required that all Polish be monitored for propaganda purposes. I remember the Government Polish Monitor as he sat next to me in the control room each time a live program was broadcast.  To my knowledge, he never had to hit the kill switch to interrupt the program. I remember it was a hot early summer an d the announcers often sat in the announce booth in their short to beat the heat, no air conditioning. The Jewish Network program "The Goldbergs" originated their program for the network in the WGES studio. I was the control room engineer on a number of their feeds, had to follow a copy of their script, to fade in or out three microphones plus the sound table.

I will mention here one of the first major service techniques I learned from Chief Ed. Jacker. One morning after sign-on, the station monitor indicated that the WSBC transmitter was off the air. I checked meters, all were reading, tubes lit up but not output into the antenna. This was my first "off the air" emergency, a time of extreme pressure. Luckily the chief was down the hall servicing the WGES console. I ran down the hall, told him we were off the air. He said let's take a look. He walked in, looked to see that the tubes were lit, checked to see if the meters were reading, then lightly kicked the transmitter front panel with the toe of his shoe. The transmitter immediately came to life, back on the air. I looked at him dumbfounded, he kind of grinned and mused "damn crystal switching relay not making." Then he said that's what we call the kick and slap method of servicing, son, next time you'll know where to kick it. A lesson I never forgot. It served me well. Ed. did not believe that smoking and radio equipment mixed, if he caught you smoking, you were automatically fired.