Just wanted to say thank you for Robert Kegerreis’ great story about “Bootleg 1610” (RW, Jan. 1).
It brought back many memories about my first AM transmitter. I purchased it about 1971. Our Radio Shack was a small corner of a furniture store that had a few basics. For $3.95, I picked up P-Box Kit 28-103, a “wireless” AM microphone. Running via a 9V battery, you could get to a few radios in the house. We added an AC-to-9V type of converter and a long wire and managed five or six blocks, playing the top 40 songs, some commercials we recorded off the TV and our input as DJs. We had a few listeners.
The local stations called the FCC. We never got a visit, but years later I would work for those same stations, WMTE(AM)/WRRK(FM), Manistee, Mich.
My friend from next door had a father taking a mail order electronics program, so he was a bit better on the tech side, while I was more the DJ type.
Now almost 40 years later, I have just celebrated my 30th anniversary in radio. My neighbor friend went on to be a CE and took care of a radio-TV combo. I have the P-Kit still, minus the small crystal type mic, which we removed and went direct from a cassette recorder output. I have enclosed a couple of pictures of it.
I have been a reader of Radio World since about 1981 and still read it cover to cover each time it arrives. Today, I too have been a casualty of downsizing and am on the net awaiting for the next LPFM window or an area station to become available.
Thanks RW and Robert for the great piece. I plan on keeping it next to my P-Kit for a future trip down memory lane.
Mike Shannon
Owner
The Oldieschannel.com
“Shannon in the Morning and Deb”
Bedford, Ind.
