These pictures are from March, 1978.
Don Nash, Chief Engineer of
KYOK in the 70s, built the studio which was in use frequently. The turntables and cart machines were DC because AC wasn't stable enough back then. Don reports there were frequent breakdowns of equipment which necessitated rebuilding the whole studio including the console within about 2 years.
The studio could be taken out cruising around Loop 610 and never lose a signal (the receiver was on One Shell, the tallest building in town at the time), but if they got too far west they had to pull over and raise the antenna.
When Don started at
KYOK in 1971 he had a staff of four, necessary to operate the station at night. By the time he left in 1980 he was the only person on the engineering staff. He had designed and built a totally automated system which he wound up selling to Potomac Instruments of Silver Spring, MD. He then left
KYOK and went to work for Potomac for 10 years where he developed their RC-16 Remote Control System as Chief Digital Design Engineer.
As a side note, he was into computers early. He bought one of the first Altair computers (serial # 26) which he took time off from
KYOK to drive to Albuquerque to pick up.
KYOK was the last station Don worked at. Previously he had been at
WTOC (now
WTKS), Savannah, GA,
WRIP (now
WYDN) Chattanooga,
WEAM (now
WZHF) Arlington, VA,
WOKO (now
WOPG), Albany, NY,
KTLK (now
KKZN) Denver, and
WINQ, Tampa, before getting the offer from
KYOK which was owned by the Starr Brothers at the time. He served as either Chief or Assistant Chief at all those stations except the first one. After he got into design work he let his license lapse. He's retired now, living overseas, and maintains this
website. I am grateful to him for sharing these pictures and history.
