The noise generator was used to record a short period of noise at the beginning of the audio tapes that WUOM distributed. This allowed the stations to tweak the azimuth of their playback heads, since, when there is an alignment difference between the recording and playback heads the high frequencies go first.

WUOM, the station operated by the Regents of The University of Michigan, recorded a great many of the lectures, musical performances, and other special events taking place on-campus.

Many were truly outstanding, like Cleve Backster ("The Secret Life of Plants") who hooked up plants to EEGs and saw the plants react to various situations like when someone in the room simply *thought* of hurting the plant.)

Another was George Wald who, along with Ragnar Granit and Haldan Keffere, received the 1967 Nobel Prize in Medicine for their discoveries concerning the primary physiological and chemical visual processes in the eye. Dr. Wald spent his later years speaking out against both the Vietnam War and anti-democratic tendencies in the Protest movement ("A Generation in Search of a Future").

The station also recorded world famous musicians like Arthur Rubenstein, Vladimir Horowitz,  Alicia De Larrocha, and many others whose names do not immediately come to mind. Most of these performances took place in Hill Auditorium, an old auditorium with great acoustics.

These programs were distributed by tape because it was before satellites; even before  National Public Radio (NPR).  Nowadays, most of the formerly great public radio stations like WUOM simply play (and replay) programs distributed by NPR,  APR (American Public Radio), and PRI (Public Radio International, not to be confused with the political party that formerly ran Mexico).

The people I remember most from my days at WUOM include Music Director Evans Mirageas who did much of the music recording at Hill Auditorium and hosted Music of the Masters five nights a week. (I even learned to enjoy Opera Night on Thursdays.)

Stephen Skelly was the Program Director who was known as much for his acerbic wit as for his musical taste.

Joan was our Music Librarian (and a very nice lady)  but I'm afraid I've forgotten her last name.

Fred Hindley was our News Director as well as an institution in his own right.

Geof Bently, and then Stan Wiggins, were our newsmen as they both, respectively, went to Law School.

One of the weekly commentary programs we recorded for distribution was hosted by Ross Wilhelm (Professor of Business Economics, University of Michigan). Dr. Wilhelm's conservative economics philosophy was way ahead of the times, and very courageous for the early 1970s.

Hazen Schumacher hosted the very popular series "Jazz Revisited" .  Hazen was also the Director of The University Of Michigan Broadcasting Service, of which WUOM was a part. Early in my broadcasting career Hazen gave me some very good advice.

"Jed," he said, "don't say 'Shit' on the radio."

Neal Bedford was our Station Manager.

Evelyn Titus and Doris Patterson were our Administrative Assistants.

The other engineers I worked with were Oliver Hibbert, Stan Dilley, Barry Legion,  Bill Hickey, Jim Paffenbarger,  Art Beutler, George Cacciopo, and transmitter engineers Frank and Alex.

Ray Klatt was the WUOM Chief Engineer and  Fred Remley was the Technical Director of The University of Michigan Broadcasting Service.

If anyone has a WUOM Program Guide from around 1975 please let me know; I would like to scan it and post it on this Web site.

Jed Margolin   1/6/2001, revised 2/2/2002
 

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