The Undergraduate Chair
IN THE MIDDLE of a third-floor window in Robinson Hall a new red neon sign blazes the signature WDBS across the campus.
The neon sign is the most recent innovation of the vital college radio station that, since the dim days of 1941, has grown from a six-man voice crying in the wilderness into a professional public service sponsored by 150 men of Dartmouth.
Radio blossomed at Dartmouth after months of politicking and honest effort by a handful of determined students. Editorials tossed claim and counter-claim around in the pages of The Dartmouth. One objector thought that extra noise in the dormitories would drop his average from a moldy 3.1 to a more human 1.8. Another was positive that radio would unify all extracurricular activities and introduce the faculty to all classes. Experience in professional radio work for interested undergrads was another big talking point of radio advocates.
In a few months President Hopkins' Radio Council okayed the venture and in a few weeks canned music from WDBS was circulating through three dormitories.
That was eight years ago, before the new neon-sign prosperity appeared under the "urging of this year's station director Emil J. "Bud" Popke '49 from Danbury, Conn. Bud, a geology major, also heads the Ivy Network, an alliance of Ivy League radio stations formed to encourage national advertising on college stations. The Ivy League many times has chimed in to help on sports coverage, the WDBS station director says.
Maintaining a radio station where the show must go on despite blown tubes and short circuits provides plenty of headaches for the technical department, headed by Jack Whelden '49 of Rutland, Vermont. A soldering iron and a pair of pliers sometimes keep WDBS on the airways. Technically, "airways" reads wrong, explains Jack, as the broadcasts are piped into the dormitories by carrier circuit transmission.
Blanchard Pratt '47, an ex-Navy radio technician, holds the job of chief troubleshooter for the network. Recently he has designed a new transmitter for the station and at present the black crackle metal chassis, loops of colored wire and shiny new coils, and a dozen empty coke bottles decorate the maintenance room where Pratt and a helper work late nights fitting parts and soldering up circuits. In this room where radio jargon baffles the layman they say that the new transmitter "had been on the redboard" that is, hitched up temporarily for testing.
Records originally were the backbone of WDBS shows and still get the biggest Hooper rating with students. However, live talent now logs more and more time on the dormitory network (sometimes called "the powerful five watter" by some of the 500 guaranteed listeners). John Gambling '51 of New York City directs the WDBS Workshop half-hour, selecting scripts and polishing the performance. The Workshop employs full sound effects, including bodies hitting the dust and Marines sloshing through Okinawa mud.
On Guest Performance Vin Hill '50 from Nyack, N. Y., conducts At the Keyboard, a half-hour of his own piano arrangements. On his own show Twing Neely strums a guitar and sings mountain ballads. Jack English '49 from Stoneham, Mass., one of Dartmouth's most rabid bebop fans and a talented pianist, churns up the airways with his once-a-week band show. Inevitable is the quiz show, soon to come, that will take to the telephones and offer prize money for correct student answers.
Sports rate a good deal of WDBS on-the- air time with play by play accounts of home hockey, football and basketball handled by Dick Hollands '50 from Hornell, N. Y., or Bob Sisk '50 of Hartford, Conn. When a sponsor will pay the freight, the sports staff sallies off to Princeton or the Yale Bowl to cover the big games.
In line with the original aim to integrate all college activities, WDBS has pitched in this year to help the D.O.C. with Carnival. Bob Pilsbury '48 and his band swung music around in Commons to pep up freshman Carnival "spirit and Dick Hollands ran a record show in Thayer, both on the air.
During Carnival, WDBS handled all the sound equipment for the events, even sending Bob Baum '49 out one night with a mike to interview the hard-working packers at the center of campus snow sculpture.
The campus, still gripped by the post-exam hush when everyone is holding his breath, needed a hypo of Carnival spirit.
Jim Gaylord '50 from Springfield, Mass., the station business manager, and Bob Oliver 'go from Wayne, Pa., publicity director, keep local advertisers buying time so that the station can present a stiff upper lip to creditors. Right now WDBS could use a boost from a DuPont Nemours stock dividend or another College grant. Radio is at Dartmouth to stay and if advertising accounts keep growing WDBS will be off the neutral network and in the black.
Carnival—February 11-12: The daytime gleam of ice and snow. Nighttime jazz thumping out of dim fraternity house windows. A skier crouched low dashing through slalom flags. And girls laughing around a campus traditionally vocal with masculine praise of Eleazar and his historic rum.
SNOW AND BROAD SMILES GO TOGETHER as the DOC's Winter Carnival Committee lines up on the campus for the traditional picture. Left to right, front row: Ray L. Powers Jr. '49 of Houston, Texas, publicity; Dean Stearns Morse, faculty advisor; Hugh M. Chapin '48, of Wellesley Hills, Mass., chairman; J. David Vogel '50 of Wayne, III.y equipment; Culver A. Modisette '50 of West Hartford, Conn., Outdoor Evening; and W. Douglas Carter '49 of Norwich, Vt., personnel. Back row: Thomas E. Leggat '47 of Lowell, Mass., tickets; George F. Jewett Jr. '50 of Spokane, Wash., competitions; Dean S. Worth '49 of Waban, Mass., ex-officio; Robert M. Nelson '47 of Manchester, N. H., police; John E. Reeves '45 of Hinsdale, iii., entertainment; Thomas H. Huggins '49 of Macedonia, Ohio, features; John R„ Zillmer '48 of Wauwatosa, Wis., ex-officio; and President Richard P. Nickelsen '47 of Lynbrook, N. Y., also ex-officio.
WINNING DORM STATUE: "My Old Flame" was the title of this giant lighter which took top honors tor Butterfield Hall, dorm winner last year also.
SETTING THE GIRLS' SLALOM COURSE: Bebe Walker of Marblehead, Mass., who won the "hackers race" at Carnival last year, helps Jay Larmon '47 plan the race for student dates and wives.
THE SLALOM AT OAK HILL PROVIDED THRILLS FOR AN UNUSUALLY LARGE CARNIVAL CROWD
