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    WNAX 570 Radio:: 1922-2007
    WNAX 570 Radio:: 1922-2007
    WNAX 570 Radio:: 1922-2007
    Ebook190 pages30 minutes

    WNAX 570 Radio:: 1922-2007

    By Marilyn Kratz and Stan Ray

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    About this ebook

    Life on the northern plains was lonely in the early 20th century. Farmers and ranchers went for weeks without hearing any voices other than those of their families. Then, in 1922, Al Madson, proprietor of a Yankton radio parts shop, made a radio transmitter. He formed a broadcasting company, and on November 25, 1922, WNAX broadcast its first program. People of the northern plains now had a daily "visitor." Gurney Seed and Nursery Company owned the station for its first 16 years, adding distinctive innovations to its programming. In its constant commitment to agriculture, the station has influenced the history of the five-state area it covers. Lawrence Welk got his start there. Wynn Speece, known as the Neighbor Lady, still broadcasts daily after starting at WNAX in 1941.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateSep 18, 2012
    ISBN9781439632918
    WNAX 570 Radio:: 1922-2007
    Author

    Marilyn Kratz

    Stan Ray, a Yankton mortician, grew up in the transmitter building of WNAX, where his father worked as an engineer. He experienced firsthand many of the momentous events associated with WNAX. Marilyn Kratz, a retired elementary school teacher, is a freelance writer and a longtime resident of Yankton.

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      Book preview

      WNAX 570 Radio: - Marilyn Kratz

      book.

      INTRODUCTION

      June, 1939—my first days at a radio station I was to work with for the next 66 years, and grateful for every one of those years. I had just graduated from Drake University and was eager to work in radio. I began by reading the funnies on the air with Art Smith at the Cowles Radio Station in Des Moines, Iowa. He recommended me for the job of continuity writer at the newest Cowles acquisition radio station WNAX in Yankton, South Dakota. How lucky I was to become part of this station, so eager to serve well in every way—farm, home, business, daily living—the people in a five-state area of North and South Dakota, Iowa, Minnesota, and Nebraska.

      I soon became Women’s Director at WNAX. I began a lifelong career in 1941 as Your Neighbor Lady, serving the everyday living needs of the women of the area just as the station had long been serving the men by highlighting farming needs. I traveled throughout the station’s coverage area, broadcasting live, meeting women, establishing a special contact—a special relationship—which grew and grew and is still strong and gratifying all these years later.

      The station also met my needs in every way it could. My daily radio program had progressed nicely for four years. Then I married in 1945, and when my first baby was on the way, I went to Bob Tincher, station manager at the time, to tell him I would have to leave WNAX when the baby was born. He thought for a moment, then said, No, we’ll just move the microphone into your home. His wise response pleased me and allowed me to create a special new approach to women’s broadcasting which became a mainstay to the large midwestern home-geared audience. It was as if my listeners were there with me, visiting, learning together, helping each other. And my mail grew and grew, making my listeners a vital part of our working together. It required eight women to open the thousands of letters I received and fill orders for my sponsors. My listeners and I got to know each other in a personal way.

      That attitude, that approach to serving this great midwestern area, carried on through the developing years of WNAX and has been evident in all areas of its broadcasting ever since. The managers of the station knew what the five state area needed in the way of information, entertainment, and help in developing a strong, intelligent living and working area. There is still personal contact with listeners.

      WNAX has been fortunate in finding good people to staff the station from top management right on down through every area, all of whom take seriously their commitment to serve the listeners. Like me, they have found the work satisfying and gratifying. It has always been a great place to work. We who have worked at WNAX over the years are grateful to this station and proud to be a part of such a giving business. We will always maintain its quality and contribution to the area.

      —Wynn Speece

      Shown here is Wynn Speece, Your Neighbor Lady.

      One

      THE GURNEY YEARS

      In May 1922, E. C. Al Madson helped establish Dakota Radio Apparatus Company in Yankton, South Dakota. He and Chan Gurney started experimenting with radio transmitting. They set up a simple broadcasting station on the second floor over a restaurant on Walnut Street near Third Street using plans in a Popular Mechanics magazine. They used a morning glory horn from an Edison phonograph for their microphone and placed a radio receiver in the restaurant. To test their microphone, they ordered sandwiches and coffee. When the restaurant owner delivered their order a few minutes later, they knew their set worked. Madson applied for a license to operate a sending station. It was granted on November 9, 1922. The assigned call letters were WNAX: W indicated a newly-licensed station, N for North, A for American, and X for experimental. On November 25, 1922, the station broadcast music as part of the 50th anniversary of First National Bank (now First Dakota National Bank) in Yankton. Concerts featuring local musicians followed. With no advertisement to support the station, it broadcast intermittently. Reception was often marred with static. In 1923, Madson, shown here in the first transmitter studio, packed their broadcasting equipment away in a flour barrel until 1925 when they gave it another try.

      The Dakota Radio Apparatus Company was established in Yankton in conjunction with the company’s sales activities as distributor of Crosley radios. E. O. Walgren was president. He and Cecil Bauer, another radio enthusiast, helped Al Madson and Chan Gurney set up the first broadcasting equipment. They strung an antenna between two pipes on the roof of the building in which their equipment was housed.

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