Retired broadcast engineer Dick McGraw from West Virginia wrote to me about his transmitter dog — “Hershey.”
He’s been reading the series and said it was rewarding to know he wasn’t the only one who took his dog with him on those long trips out to transmitter sites over the years.
Hershey
“Hershey was a plain brown dog who was dropped off at our station in hopes that we would run an announcement to find her a home. She found a home, alright … and stayed with me for the next 17 years,” McGraw told me.
“From day one, Hershey loved being involved with the station and became an integral part of the daily activities. You could set your watch by the times she made the rounds of people’s desks to get her afternoon snack,” he wrote.
Construction made her curious. If a power tool was cranked up anywhere in the building, she would come running to see what was happening, according to McGraw. “Once, while installing an audio console, I was brought back to reality by some laughing in the hallway outside the studio. Turning around I saw several members of the staff looking in the window to see both Hershey and me with our heads stuck in the board. I had become used to the fact that she would be right next to me intently watching every wire being tied down. I’m not sure, but I think she probably could have done it herself,” he wrote.
Age caught up with her last winter, McGraw wrote: “I’ll never have another like her. She was a true blessing.”
