Springfield-WKMJ

One of my boyhood chums in Springfield invited me over to his house one saturday afternoon. He lived on McArthur Blvd., a nice area with large homes. Mom dropped me off and soon we were up in his second story bedroom with a great view of the neighborhood out the back. Better yet, he said he had his own radio station. Oh, yeah, right. Well- against the two big windows was a desk with gauges, a turntable and two microphones. I asked where and how he broadcast. His dad helped him set up a PA system on steroids. For the rest of the day, we played records, interviewed each other and just plain goofed off over the air. He had a record library and a reel-to-reel tape player all inter-connected. How cool. I had to have one too.
Never thinking about neighborhood impact studies.


Well, a few weeks later, I had a plan and dad was on board. He helped out with just about any hair-brained idea I came up with. I think just to keep me busy and hope that someday it may lead into a career. He got a kick out of some of the kid creativeness. I think he chuckled himself to sleep on more than one occasion.

Anyhow, an old black and white TV, whose usefulness was well past, was my speaker. With proceeds from my paper route, I bought a fantastic black and aluminum microphone and stand. Dad helped wire the microphone, through the TV to a speaker in the window well in the back of the house. ( Now it all makes sense why he didn't have too many objections) The mic, as we in the industry call it, was on my desk in my basement bedroom. WKMJ was on the air. For a few weeks after the paper route, WKMJ took to the airwaves playing old 45's dating to the 1950's and more recent stuff, but those were pretty few. Interviews were pretty limited to commentary, mostly about things at school and other topics of riveting interest to the neighbors.

I never received notice from the FCC of competition and regulatory concerns. Nor any fan mail, but with a limited platform, I was running out of program ideas. So I guess, it was time for the final sign off and farewell broadcast on a Saturday afternoon. WKMJ is now a memory and a part of Springfield media history forever as those programs are still out there in space, somewhere.