Station Announcements of
Radio Station
WLCR-AM Carrier Current
Lewisburg/White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia U.S.A.

The following station announcements were used on Radio Station WLCR-AM Carrier Current, broadcasting in the Lewisburg/White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia U.S.A. area, during the Summers of 1971 through 1977:

This is WLCR-AM Carrier Current, Lewisburg, West Virginia,
broadcasting on a crystal-controlled frequency of 640 KiloHertz.

This station operates in accordance with the
Federal Communications Commission Rules and Regulations Part 15.

This station broadcasts for educational, non-commercial purposes utilizing an RC-6A AM Broadcast Transmitter, manufactured and approved by Mr. Richard H. Crompton, President of Low Power Broadcast Company, 520 Lincoln Highway, Frazer, Pennsylvania, zip code 19355.

This station is operated by Camp Shaw-Mi-Del Eca, Incorporated. We would like to hear how far this station is transmitting. You may write us at WLCR-AM Carrier Current, in care of Camp Shaw-Mi-Del-Eca, Post Office Box 747, Lewisburg, West Virginia, zip code 24901.

Prior to installation of the Weather Substation, two thermometers provided the temperature for broadcast in the new broadcast studio; one thermometer was in the east studio window, while the other was in one of the south studio windows. The radio station on-air staff would use the temperature of whichever thermometer was in the shade, at that time. Usually the sky conditions and the current time[the radio station's clock was corrected each day with time transmitted by the National Bureau of Standards' (now known as the National Institute of Standards and Technology) short-wave radio station, WWV-SW] were also broadcast with the temperature; these time--temperature--sky condition reports were announced frequently on WLCR-AM Carrier Current. The Radio Group members (students in the Radio-Science Educational Program) were instructed to often broadcast time and temperature checks, along with the current sky conditions; whenever a weather forecast was broadcast, it always included time and temperature checks with the current sky conditions.

Weather forecasts were obtained from the National Weather Service for broadcast.

In addition to the standard time announcements, WLCR-AM Carrier Current broadcast a time-tone designating the beginning of the hour, from the CBS Radio Network, prior to the hourly CBS Radio News.

Although the NBC and ABC Radio Networks also had exact time-tomes, indicating the beginning of the hour, the CBS Radio Network is the only network which continues this practice, today. However, there are many local radio stations that now have their own hourly time-tones, such as KDKA-AM in Pittsburgh(as the nation's first commercial radio station, begun 1920 November 2, KDKA pioneered the broadcast of time signals with the daily broadcast of the "Anderson Time Signals").

KYW-AM, Philadelphia's all-news radio station, has its own time-tone which indicates the beginning of every half-hour! And, at one time back in the 1960s, WSM-AM, the well-known Country music station( particularly known for the Saturday evening broadcast of the Grand Ole Opry) in Nashville, actually had a time-tone every 15 minutes(i.e. :00, :15, :30, and :45)!

Mexico City has an AM radio station which broadcasts a time-tone at the beginning of each minute; between these announcements, they squeeze-in as many mini-commercials as possible! Havana has a similar AM radio service, on 950 KiloHertz(same frequency as Detroit's all-news radio station, WWJ-AM, a CBS Radio affiliate which is considered the nation's second commercial radio station); news is broadcast between each announcement.

During the Summer of 1976, WLCR-AM Carrier Current radio station (Lewisburg / Caldwell / White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia) broadcast frequent reports on the mission of the two Viking spacecraft, which orbited and landed on the Planet Mars. These pre-recorded reports came directly from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) via a toll-free telephone number specifically set-up for radio stations. A weekly five-minute NASA radio feature report (via transcription on vinyl record) was also broadcast.

Local Camp Shaw-Mi-Del-Eca news and news features were often broadcast on the radio station. And, from time-to-time, the campers also broadcast their own commentaries on WLCR-AM Carrier Current.

In 1967, the Camp radio station was known as WCDW. WCDW broadcast national news and features(including the popular weekend program, "Monitor") from the NBC Radio Network. As indicated earlier, NBC Radio broadcast a time-tone at the beginning of each hour, prior to their hourly newscast; each newscast was five minutes in length.

Other Internet Web Sites of Interest

History of Astronomer, Educator, and Optician John A. Brashear

History of The Buhl Planetarium and Institute of Popular Science, Pittsburgh -
Including the Oldest Operable, Major Planetarium Projector in the World !

History of The Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum, Chicago -
America's First Major Planetarium !

History of Andrew Carnegie and Carnegie Libraries

History of The Duquesne Incline, Pittsburgh -
Historic Cable Car Railway Serving Commuters and Tourists since 1877 !

Other History Links

Quick-Reference Pages(Valuable Library References)