Back in 1939 the idea of a College radio station was first suggested to Oliphant by an eager freshman, Kenneth I. Richter '43. Richter assisted with preliminary tests in tracing the distance a signal could be heard by shock excitation of the steam pipes under the University grounds. Later Richter dropped out and Oliphant continued tests with the help of McCouch and an interested CRIMSON editor, William W. Tyng '41.
A small transmitter in the basement of Winthrop reached that House, Lowell; Eliot, and Adams. As enthusiasm among other students built up, Tyng succeeded in interesting the CRIMSON in the project. Seeking an additional source of news and not wanting an advertising competitor, the CRIMSON consented, and, with Dean's office permission, assumed responsibility for the station. Under the agreement a loan of $500 was contracted and the station was not permitted to solicit advertising.
The "Crimson Radio Network" moved into the now defunct Shepard Hall, which then stood near the Indoor Athletic Building. At this time it was broadcasting through the steam pipes, and listeners had to tap their radios to a radiator. Illegal outside radiation through the air--the Network was non-commercial--seemed slight.
But in the first week of operation a studio technician, driving home from a Wellesley date, listened to the station on his car radio all the way to Cambridge. Broadcasts were temporarily discontinued that night.
The old water pipes were tried next, and the station soon had regular listeners in Watertown.
The next by became known as "Oliphant's Folly." Under his direction, a single copper wire conductor was run around the base of the gutter of the main courtyard in Lowell House. Tests showed that Lowell obtained wonderful reception. So did Worcester.
Wire Was Abandoned
The wire (installed for $300 by the Maintenance Department) is probably still lying there today, rusty and obsolete. If so, it belongs to the CRIMSON.
The Network was able to resume regularly scheduled programs only after permission had been obtained to use the University's electrical wires--the system now in operation. Coaxial cables now run to tuning units in the Houses, Wigglesworth, Straus, University Hall, the Graduate Center, and through the Weeks Bridge to the Business School.
The Network gradually took on individual existence. It broke away from the CRIMSON in 1943 and payed off its indebtedness to the newspaper and the Maintenance Department by 1945. During this period Radio Radcliffe was born and a wire for exchange programs was set up between Dudley, where the station had moved when Shepard was torn down, and the 'Clffe's Field House station.
In 1946 the advertising agreement was dissolved and the station stood free and alone to brave the world, the F.C.C., the intricacies of an independent business organization, and the ever-present watchfulness of the Western Union time clock.