Valley Broadcast Legends
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Meetings: 2nd Tuesday even numbered months

Events:

   
2026: 10 Feb, 14 Apr, 9 Jun, 11 Aug, 13 Oct, 8 Dec
 
 
Our venue is The Old Spaghetti Factory 12401 Folsom Blvd., Rancho Cordova, in the Nimbus Winery Mall.
Doors open at NOON. Lunch is served at 12:30.
 

 

 
9 June: No, Really -- How Bad Was It?
 
     


"Remarkably, unbelievably bad." That's how Tom DuHain describes the working conditions at a radio station in a motel room on Auburn Boulevard, where he and Dann Shively toiled during the early days of the broadcasting careers. They'll be sharing stories of those "not so good old days" at our next luncheon on June 9.

Tom continues, "When I tell people what KJML-FM was like, they think I’m wildly exaggerating. But Dann was there and saw it all. Wish I took pictures but it never occurred to me -- it’s not something I wanted people to see!

To get a job there you had to agree to falsify the frequency drift readings! Imagine an old tube transmitter upstairs in a converted motel room with NO air conditioning in the summer! My salary was $1.06 per hour part time -- when they managed to make payroll. Imagine the owner and only sales guy having a fist fight next to the control room, slamming into the thin walls. It was a beautiful music format with no records. They used music tapes meant for automated stations with high pitched cue tones. Those shrill tones, if not muted in time, would knock the transmitter of the air. Fun,huh?

"We’ve got stories a-plenty, including the babe hired to 'brief' the visiting FCC inspector. We were told she was the new program manager. Never saw her before and never again. Strange but true."

last edited
7 June.2026

--Copy Joyce Kreig