You would have thought it would have been a "long time" until the next day at 5 PM, but it wasn't. There was no
great expectations other than a new filing would be made. So the few of us gathered again at Harvit's office just after five
and stuffed into the office soon there after, just making small talk as we waited. About 5:15 the phone rang and we heard
Janet (Evans) answer and put it on hold. Then she came to the door and said "It's Midland". The old "key" system let Harvit
have a speaker attachment but it rarely worked, so after the initial greetings he began to repeat what Mr. Midland said. I
remember it to have gone something like this. "As of....5:15 there has been....no further filings made against the case....the
construction permit should be issued soon". We all clapped and yelled! By the time we calmed down Harvit was off the
phone and looked at all of us and said "Are we ready"? Some one said , "Sure are"! I think it was Tennis Hatfield, the sales
manager. Then Harvit looked at me and said "Well Chief....just don't buy anything until I approve it"! We all laughed for
we knew it was a joke, for we were a long way from buying anything.
I went on home to tell the new wife and thought she would be happy for me/us. After all, not every 26 year old
Engineer got to do this kind of thing. But that wasn't the case. Only years later would I discover this moment was the begining
of the end for us.
There was so much to do! First I wanted to visit the site. Although it was overlooking town, there was no easy way to
get there. So one sunny day the wife and I hiked up to the top. Nothing but a huge briar patch and a few scattered
older trees. And CB antennas! There must have been a dozen of them scattered along the ridge! I didn't want to go back thru
the briars so we went down to the first flat, where I got the great idea to carve our initials in a tree. The next day I reported
on the trip to Harvit. He wanted to see too! He knew he couldn't climb up there, so he rented a local chopper (that was giving
rides at the Magic Mart across the river) to take any of the staff that wanted to go, on a fly-over. That was a first for
me. I had been up in our news directors little plane but this was different. I hadn't expected the "elevator effect" on the
way up. One girl did get sick from it. Harvit would later that day remark about the site ,"At least it's not a rock cliff,
but it's close"!
The first thing we needed was a road up there. Well it just so happened the husband of an employee was a Civil
Engineer. So we hired him to survey a road to the site that we could get a long truck over. We knew it woul be spring of 1977
before the actual work could begin. That done we turned to other issues.
Would the new station be Rock or Country? Live or Automated? Mono or Stereo? It was decided quickly the station
would be Country! We just needed some catchy call letters and slogan. Live? Well, Harvit wanted "Quality on the air" and he
just didn't think locals could do it. But I was told to design for live anyway. Stereo? No !!! Mono! Harvit's stand cited
the loss of "fringe" listeners for stereo (and we needed all the coverage we could get) and the fact that WVOW wasn't stereo
and no one minded that! (note: WVOW, Logan, is still mono) And why pay twice the money if you didn't have too? This bothered
me greatly. A new station in mono! What could I do? Then Harvit went and bought a big Bang-Olfsen (sp) receiver and just had
to show it to me. You're going to think I'm nuts, but that night I dreamed of that damn radio! And when I woke up I had the
answer. It had a stereo/mono search button. A search button. That's it!! So I told Harvit that day, when he went home,
to "Push the mono button and hit search and write down all the stations it stopped on. Then do the same thing on stereo".
He had no idea why I wanted him to do this...until the next day.
When he came in he came straight to me. (Half laughing)"You damn smart ass! You knew what I'd find"! "Make
it stereo"!
You see, with the mono button in, the search stopped at every station. With it out, it stopped on all but one....the
mono station!
In the early spring of 1977 surveyor's stakes began to appear on the mountain. And, the wife was pregnant with
our first child. Little did I know of the collision of these two events was about to change our lives. Then on April 4, 1977
our Williamson world, as we knew it, ended.
The Williamson flood disaster halted all planning and work on the new FM until the fall of that year.
At this point I suggest the reader click on the story "Every Time It Rains" on this site, to understand why.
