[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 135 (Saturday, November 20, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2099-E2101]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       A SALUTE TO WRHI AND WRHM

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. JOHN M. SPRATT, JR.

                           of south carolina

                    in the house of representatives

                       Friday, November 19, 2004

  Mr. SPRATT. Mr. Speaker, I am honored to salute two radio stations 
that have brought years of broadcasting excellence to the citizens of 
North and South Carolina. On December 14, 2004, WRHI marks its 60th 
anniversary, and its sister station, WRHM, joins in celebrating its 
40th anniversary.
  WRHI, 1340 AM, serves much of York County, South Carolina, including 
my hometown of York. I was two years old when it first went on the air 
in 1944, and, I'm proud to say; its been a part of my life and a 
bedrock of our community ever since.
  WRHM, 107 FM, covers 15 counties, from the Upstate to the State 
Capital, and from Rockingham to York.
  WRHI and WRHM have prospered all these years because of people like 
Manning Kimmel and Allan Miller. Together, they make up the leadership 
of Our Three Sons Broadcasting. They acquired WRHI in 1984 and WRHM in 
1987, and along with their cracker jack staff, they have spent years 
making sure the stations were top-notch facilities. But above keeping 
pace with technology, they've kept pace with their community. As 
Manning says, ``We have an obligation to be its voice, to discuss

[[Page E2100]]

the issues which affect us, and to ensure we keep our sense of 
community and the qualities which make this such an exceptional place 
to live. This is where we live, work, play, and pray. York County is 
just a great place to live.''
  Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to submit for the Record the proud history 
of WRHI, written by Haney Howell, of Winthrop University. And I 
encourage all of my colleagues, who find themselves in the York County 
area, to tune in to 1340 AM or 107 FM and hear some of the best in 
news, talk, sports, and country music. Happy Birthday, WRHI and WRHM, 
and thank you, together, for giving the Carolinas ``100 Years of 
Broadcasting Excellence.''

       WRHI Radio: Broadcast Pioneer Continues to Serve Rock Hill

                           (By Haney Howell)

       December 1944 was a time to dust off dreams. Allied forces 
     were pushing at the Germans from both sides, the Normandy 
     invasion a success. The Japanese were retreating toward the 
     home islands in the Pacific, setting the stage for their 
     final push. People could again afford to pursue their dreams, 
     to think of a life without war.
       In the Carolinas, another delayed dream came true. WRHI 
     Radio in Rock Hill, South Carolina, broadcast for the first 
     time, becoming the ninth station in the state and one of the 
     first 600 in the nation.
       Few stations signed on in the United States during the war, 
     first because of a freeze on building permits then 
     restrictions on equipment purchases.
       WRHI made it on the air despite overwhelming odds, wartime 
     restriction and one of the dreamer's deaths at Normandy. The 
     250-watt signal on 1340 was as much a bureaucratic miracle as 
     a technological one. The story of WRHI is also the story of 
     one strong-willed individual with a dream of community 
     service. While the forces of war delayed plans for radio in 
     Rock Hill, the efforts of this man brought it to reality. 
     James S. ``Jim'' Beaty, Jr., was a young broadcast engineer 
     who believed in community broadcasting. He felt that Rock 
     Hill needed more than a newspaper and regional broadcast 
     stations. He was a sick child, almost dying of pneumonia in 
     the second grade. He quickly ruled out physical activities 
     and searched for areas he could conquer with his mind. He 
     witnessed the phenomenal growth of radio during the 30s, 
     listening to stations across the nation late into the night. 
     ``I was interested in radio since the time I was old enough 
     to recognize a radio crystal set.''
       He started in radio as an amateur, building receivers and 
     transmitters from scratch. An aunt promised him a kit radio 
     while in high school if he made A's. Not only did he receive 
     the kit, he located a man who was an expert builder to teach 
     him. Friends were amazed at his skills with building 
     electrical circuits and other detailed work. Beaty 
     overcame the slight shaking of Parkinson's Disease and 
     became a master builder. However, he avoided work with 
     high voltage and high gage wires, fearful that he'd have 
     an accident.
       Beaty grew up in Greenville, South Carolina, while part of 
     the family remained in Rock Hill. He attended Clemson 
     University for one year in the mid 1930s before his 
     Parkinson's Disease and the Depression forced him to drop 
     out. He loved electronics courses and asked more questions of 
     his professors than most. His health would play a major role 
     in the history of the station, forcing him to stay behind 
     during World War II.
       He soon turned his skills to broadcast engineering, 
     building and maintaining equipment for stations. His first 
     job was at WMRG in Greenville, and he vividly remembered that 
     job interview 50 years later. ``I walked into that station--a 
     combination transmitter and studio building--and there was 
     this fellow leaning on the carpet putting a mike receptacle 
     in, and I asked him, `How about a job?' and he said, `What 
     field? Announcing or engineering?' I said engineering, and he 
     said, `Hand me that pair of pliers over there and get on the 
     other end of this wire.' ''
       Beaty learned the basics of putting a station on the air. 
     When the Greenville station changed management, he followed 
     the man who originally hired him to Burlington, North 
     Carolina. That is where he spent most of the war, and pulled 
     together his hometown radio station. As he gained experience, 
     he planed for a station of his own. He gained another 
     supporter when he married Anne in the late 30s.
       Rock Hill was covered by WBT and other regional stations. 
     What Beaty sought was a voice for his own community, a 
     station that represented the people of Rock Hill and South 
     Carolina. While only 25 miles separated Rock Hill from 
     Charlotte, North Carolina, those miles and a state line 
     created a major gulf.
       In the early 1940s, Beaty convinced his older brother, 
     William, that a radio station was both needed and wanted in 
     this textile mill and farming community south of Charlotte. 
     No county in the upper tier of South Carolina had a station 
     and the Beatys did not feel that the local newspaper 
     fulfilled the need for more instant news and live local 
     entertainment.
       The brothers approached Ernest Carroll, a local soft drink 
     distributor and a founding member of Rock Hill National Bank. 
     His son, Ernest Carroll, Jr., had an intense interest in 
     theater and performing. The elder Carroll thought the radio 
     station would give his son a challenge, and he also agreed 
     with the Beaty's for the need for a station in Rock Hill. 
     Carroll put up $10,000 in seed money, and offered them space 
     in the new Rock Hill National Bank building downtown. Jim 
     Beaty's dream was now moving forward, and as with other 
     challenges in his life, he wasn't about to give it up.
       By late 1941, plans were well underway and an application 
     was filed with the FCC. There were others seeking to put a 
     station in Rock Hill. It was the largest of a number of small 
     to mid-sized towns which dotted the Carolina Piedmont. A 
     large part of the economy was based on textiles and cotton. 
     It was a town dominated by a handful of powerful people, and 
     Ernest Carroll was one. Jim and Bill Beaty's father, Dr. J.S. 
     Beaty, was a local physician who rapidly established himself 
     in the community. Their reputation and Carroll's financial 
     backing greatly influenced the Federal Communications 
     Commission. Jim Beaty memorized the rules and regulations, 
     closely monitoring the application each step of the process. 
     It seemed only a matter of time. Then came the Japanese 
     attack on Pearl Harbor. The application was frozen and the 
     lives of the dreamers changed. Bill Beaty became an Army 
     officer, serving in the Pacific. Ernest Carroll, Sr., became 
     a Marine officer, and his son later entered the Army. Only 
     Jim Beaty, with his physical deferment, was left to tend the 
     dream.
       Jim Beaty correctly guessed that a license might be granted 
     long before the freeze was lifted on equipment. Commercial 
     and even amateur production was taken over for military and 
     war related communications. Amateurs were off the air, and 
     many basic parts were in short supply. It was ``somewhat like 
     the used car business. There's plenty of used equipment, and 
     I started making friends with different stations and with the 
     chief engineers and finding the surplus equipment.''
       Beaty started collecting spares from various stations, 
     putting together the needed pieces for a transmitter. He 
     purchased metal trunks from the YMCA to use as cabinets. A 
     used tower found in Roanoke, Virginia, wound up stored in 
     sections in his mother's back yard. Earnest Carroll, Sr. kept 
     up his interest from afar, providing Jim Beaty with a large 
     room in his home to store the needed equipment. Ernest 
     Carroll has no doubts about how the station got on the air. 
     ``The reason we were able to get on the air was that Jim 
     shopped around everywhere he could find pieces and parts and 
     he got lockers from the YMCA, old lockers, and he built the 
     equipment into those lockers . . . That's the way we got on 
     the air. There were several groups . . . at least two that I 
     know of . . . who were planning on attempting to put a radio 
     station in Rock Hill, and planned and talked about it for 
     several years, but they couldn't . . . they didn't have Jim 
     Beaty . . . they would have to buy new equipment, so they 
     were stalled while we went ahead . . . and Jim got it on the 
     air.''
       Bill Beaty remembered the first time well. ``Jim . . . a 
     first class engineer . . . who knew everything about building 
     and maintaining equipment, started assembling parts for a 
     radio station wherever he could find them. All the stations 
     have certain parts, duplicates so to speak, and he was able 
     to find a lot of pieces of equipment, which he was able to 
     buy. He built the first transmitter from scratch. It was not 
     a commercially built transmitter.''
       Others watched the process with amazement. ``Jim Beaty, who 
     was great at this sort of thing, put the thing together with 
     haywire and whatever he could find, and got it on the air . . 
     .''
       By mid-1943, some of the restrictions on licenses were 
     lifted by the FCC. Jim Beaty pushed the paperwork and 
     continued gathering needed equipment and parts. His 
     application won out over the others, and on August 2, 1944, 
     Beaty received a construction permit. It specified direct 
     crystal control on 1340 kilocycles, 250 watts output with two 
     RCA 805s in the modulator for high-level modulation. The 
     antenna would be 177 feet tall with 120 copper wire radials 
     buried in the ground. ``That was when the FCC ruled that 
     anyone who had the equipment or could get it and could show 
     cause for the need for a station . . . Rock Hill didn't have 
     a radio station and there wasn't one in the Fifth 
     Congressional District.''
       The FCC regulation on the types and quality of equipment 
     used at broadcast stations was, and continues to be, strict. 
     Not only did Jim Beaty construct the first transmitter from 
     spare parts, it passed muster with the field inspector as 
     well. The original control room console was constructed in a 
     steel YMCA trunk, and early announcer Buddy Fields remembers 
     having to give the board ``a kick from time to time'' to free 
     up the relays.
       Jim Beaty located and purchased a lot for the tower and 
     transmitter, and Ernest Carroll sent a couple of hands from 
     his family farm to Rock Hill with a mule to plow the ground 
     and lay the radials for the tower.
       The source of the wire for the tower radials is still a 
     mystery. Copper was in very short supply, and it's thought 
     that the ground radials Beaty was forced to use have a high 
     steel content (they are still in use). Whatever the source 
     and composition, the wire arrived by train and was taken to 
     the transmitter site in a mule-drawn wagon.
       Choosing the call was left up to Jim Beaty. He later told 
     Carroll that he wanted Rock Hill reflected in the letters, 
     and said that the ``I'' on the end was simply available at 
     the time. His choice was good. The station still uses the 
     same call.
       While Jim Beaty moved toward the fulfillment of his life 
     goal, fate stepped in and

[[Page E2101]]

     shook the original group to the core. Ernest Carroll, Jr. 
     died in combat during the invasion of Europe. His father was 
     serving in the Marines in the Pacific, and was sent home and 
     eventually discharged following the death of his son. Bill 
     Beaty was in the Philippines, fighting not only the enemy but 
     tropical diseases which would plague him for the remainder of 
     his life. He would not join the station until 1946.
       Jim Beaty said that the next six months seemed like an 
     eternity. ``It was slow. First we had to get a building . . . 
     we had to get a fellow to modify the building to house the 
     transmitter.'' Once the station was transmitting, it was time 
     to build a staff. Jim Beaty brought in Al Drew from Roanoke 
     Rapids, Virginia, to help him set up the station and train 
     the announcing staff.
       First hired was Bob Carroll, a local high school student 
     and assistant manager of the local theater who had singing 
     experience. One of his teachers contacted Drew, who 
     auditioned Carroll and gave him the job. Carroll's only 
     previous radio experience was singing with the Winthrop 
     College choir as a boy soprano on WSOC during the late 1930s.
       Jim Beaty was concerned about more than just getting a 
     signal on the air. Before the official sign on, the station 
     ran numerous test programs from midnight until 6 a.m. to test 
     the equipment and more. ``We ran full occupational capacity, 
     we ran 15 minute shows, 30 minute shows, the widest diversity 
     you could think of, everything from disc jockey shows to 
     religious shows to interview shows, anything you could think 
     of to give us the background experience before we went on the 
     air.'' Carroll felt that Al Drew was a key element to the 
     success of the basics of good radio broadcasting.
       Despite the death of his son, Ernest Carroll continued to 
     help with the station. ``When I got back and had not been 
     discharged from the Marine Corps, I would drive up here from 
     Beaufort--Paris Island--and for several months I kept 
     listening when I'd come up . . . I knew what the frequency 
     was going to be and hoping to hear it on the air. Actually, 
     it was several months after I got up here (after my 
     discharge) before we signed on.'' If his son could not be a 
     part of the station, at least Ernest Carroll could see his 
     son's dream come true.
       December 14, 1944 was a bitter cold day. The staff arrived 
     by 5 a.m. and awaited the 5:30 a.m. sign on. Al Drew asked 
     Bob Carroll if he'd like to sign the station on for the first 
     time. ``I was so thrilled. He was so gracious to do that, to 
     have a young greenhorn come in and sign the station on was 
     just prodigious. When Al signaled me, I threw the switch and 
     said, this is WRHI in Rock Hill, South Carolina, 1340 on your 
     radio dial, signing on for the first time.''
       The staff understood that they were making history, but 
     they also kept in mind the times. ``It was a very poignant 
     sign on, because at that time there were still troops all 
     over the world, and we were telling the listening population 
     that we were remembering the men that were fighting on 
     foreign shores all over the world, and wishing the best for 
     them, and that the war would soon be over and things would 
     come back to normal.''
       At sign on, Jim Beaty was at the transmitter, and in the 
     control room that morning was Al Drew, Fred Lowery, and Bob 
     Carroll. As soon as they signed on, they started their normal 
     schedule.
       Ernest Carroll remembered the first day of broadcasting. 
     ``I remembered the dedication ceremony quite well. We had 
     special programs . . . had a good friend of mine from Fort 
     Mill who was an expert pianist, and he played `Danny Boy' for 
     me. The station was dedicated to the boys who had lost their 
     lives in the Second World War. That was the theme of it. Of 
     course to me, that was really important. We got a lot of 
     comment, publicity, and a good many people were kind enough 
     to complement me on my dedication address . . . which I made 
     over there and dedicated the station . . . The war was fresh 
     then, you know . . . to those loss of lives. We had a good 
     many here in Rock Hill who lost their lives in the Second 
     World War.
       ``You know how wars are, like the little boy sliding down 
     the roof and saying, ``God, don't let me say it, don't let me 
     fall . . .'' People are very much that way, you know . . . 
     they forget very quickly and for several years now . . . they 
     don't believe George Washington slept here and all that kind 
     of thing, then when the war comes against the military people 
     are very prominent . . . right now they are held almost in 
     contempt.''
       When the station signed on, WRHI was independent, and 
     filling the air time ``ran us ragged''. Later the station 
     joined the Mutual Network before switching to CBS and finally 
     ABC. Most of the programming was live and local, since 
     transportation was expensive and rare. Most important were 
     the early morning programs, focused on the listeners in the 
     then predominately agricultural and textile community.
       ``It was a wonderful proving ground for a young man 
     starting in radio, because you did get such a wide diversity 
     of programs. You had to learn to do a little bit of 
     everything.''
       Fifty years later, WRHI continues to serve the community. 
     In an age of AM stations loosing focus and going under, the 
     current ownership took a hard look at Jim Beaty's original 
     dream and realized that he was right. WRHI has remained a 
     station that focuses on Rock Hill and serves the community. 
     He understood his home town then, and made certain that the 
     staff understood as well.
       Bob Carroll spent his career in broadcasting, both radio 
     and television. Yet one of the things he learned at WRHI 
     stayed with him. Jim Beaty told him, never underestimate your 
     audience. This is really true, and I think today that too 
     many people do that.
       Jim Beaty remained involved with WRHI until it was sold in 
     the mid 1970s. Brother Bill returned from the war and handled 
     the business side of the operation. Ernest Carroll and his 
     wife, Virginia, sold their interest in 1947 to Harper Gault, 
     a local newspaper writer. Years later, Carroll still regrets 
     selling out, and considers his involvement with establishing 
     WRHI as one of his significant achievements in a life filled 
     with success in business.
       1While WRHI ranks as a pioneer broadcaster, it represents 
     more than just another radio station. It is the fulfillment 
     of one man's dreams and a community's needs. The technology 
     and programming have changed, but the basic thrust of serving 
     the community has not. What made WRHI a success in 1944 
     continues to carry the station into its second half-century.

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