POWERGRAMS

14 Left: Dee Haynes with the Alabama Historical Radio Society. Beside him is a "Superflex" radio, manufactured in Birmingham in the late 1920s by the Radio Products Corp., which failed during the Great Depression. Right: Members of the Alabama Historical Radio Society discuss the significance of WSY, the first radio station to hit the airwaves in Alabama, 100 years ago. The station was owned and operated by Alabama Power. "I must write you this morning, congratulating you on your wonderful concert of last evening, which was the most beautiful, sweet and harmonious that was ever sent through the air," wrote O.W. Blackstone of Akron, Ohio. "I get concerts from New York, New Jersey, Los Angeles, Havana, Michigan; in fact, all over the United States, and we frankly say that we enjoyed yours above any we ever listened to," exclaimed Ollie Wright from Auxvasse, Missouri. Every night, WSY signed off the air with the distinctive sound of three, slow strikes to an anvil – a nod to Vulcan, the Roman (and Birmingham's famous cast-iron) god of the forge. WSY had its own, beefy cartoon rendition of Vulcan that graced the station logo, with his hammer striking an anvil and sending bolts of lightning into the sky. As the station's popularity grew, the public's desire for more and a greater variety of programming ballooned. The job of meeting those expectations fell to Richard Johnson in the company's "Publicity Department." Johnson, Powergrams reported, combined "the ability of an impresario with the scent of a bloodhound, for he must constantly be on the lookout for new talent to render entertainment to his extremely critical audience; and, unlike professionals, he cannot call on a booking agency, but must find and develop his own talent." By the fall of 1923, it was clear WSY would need more staff to meet the demand. Running a popular radio station was never the company's primary intention, and a decision was made to exit the broadcast business. On Nov. 6, 1923, WSY aired its final program. Its equipment was dismantled and donated to Alabama Polytechnic Institute (now Auburn University), along with the station's license. Cisco said the institute already had a station, WMAV, launched in September 1922. Indeed, it turned out WSY's equipment was obsolete and of little use to WMAV, according to a history of WSY posted on the historical radio society's website. Rather than disappoint supporters of WSY, the college's Extension Service and Department of Electrical Engineering voted to purchase a state-of-the-art, 1,000-watt transmitter, according to the historical society. Two 200-foot towers were installed next to the school's new radio building, and a studio was constructed on the third floor of Comer Hall. WSY and WMAV merged to form a new station, WAPI, named after the school. Its first broadcast, in September 1925, featured an in-studio announcer reading telegraph dispatches from that day's football game between Auburn and Birmingham-Southern College. Three years later, according to Bham Wiki, the station moved back to Birmingham to grab the larger market on behalf of the 2-year-old NBC Radio Network; the city agreed to pay half the operating costs for the station. For a time, WAPI was jointly owned by Auburn, the University of Alabama and the Alabama College for Women (now the University of Montevallo) before being purchased by private investors. Today, the call letters WAPI are still riding the airwaves in Birmingham, on both the AM and FM dials. Alabama Power, in coordination with the Historical Radio Society, still has its hand in preserving the history and legacy of WSY. Photographs and documents about the station are on display in a radio history museum maintained by the society in the atrium of Alabama Power's Corporate Headquarters. And soon, a new exhibit about Alabama radio history, at the Alabama Department of Archives and History in Montgomery, is expected to include information about WSY. Haynes said WSY likely helped build awareness around the country about Birmingham as a growing metropolis and industrial center. The station represents the first chapter in what is now a century of broadcasting history in Alabama. By Michael Sznajderman PHOTOS BY MICHAEL SZNAJDERMAN

• Cover