Randal W. Howard writes:

From about 1964 to about 1969 I was Chief Engineer for WRAN.  I was involved in the proof for the 10 kW installation as well as the assembly and installation of the CCA 10 kW transmitter.  Jules Cohen & Associates were the consultants at that time, and Bernie Segal did the tune-up.  The array never worked well, and with good reason.  It didn't belong where it was.  It had been moved three times to different locations before it was actually built, and had not been re-engineered for the 'new' location, on Millbrook Ave. @ N.J. 10, in Randolph Twp.  Nighttime it barely made the required signal over the Post Office in Dover, the City Of License, and there was always WLAC in Nashville,  who complained that we overlapped them 30 miles out to sea at Norfolk, Va, and somewhere in Canada.  They ware always griping at the FCC.  In an attempt to civilize that array we de-tuned 6 power distribution towers to our west and south, several ground wires on poles to the north, and removed WDHA's aux. tower,  and installed their Aux. antenna on our Tower 3. (re-radiation to the north and east was bad because of WMEX in Boston, also at 1510.)

When I started, Sam Karvetz was station manager and partner in Lion Broadcasting.  Sam's wife was the receptionist.  Sam went with a cable TV outfit when WRAN was sold to Media Horizons.  The building, which housed the studios, transmitters and offices, was a nice Colonial - styled place.  The only problem was, that in order to get financing, the original owners had to design the building such that, if the radio station didn't make a go of it, the building could easily be turned into a house.

We parted company when I refused to punch holes in my personal automobile to permit a moving remote  which had been planed some time in advance.  The company 'News Cruiser' , a '64 Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser, was outfitted with a Marti which could be used in a two-way configuration when needed.  However, the timing chain failed in the Olds 2 weeks before the remote, and the manager refused to get it repaired.  He wanted ME to volunteer my car instead.

The station had mostly Collins equipment when it began.  Collins 1 kW transmitter, Collins main console, Collins cart machines, QRK turntables (remember turntables?) with a Collins nameplate on them, Gray Research tonearms and Shure pickups.  We had an Ampex 351, and a PR-10.  PR-10 was the worlds worst.  Ran hot, stopped in mid-play, full of tubes, as was everything else at the time.  The news and production room tape machines could be operated from the news booth or the control room, and the news room machine could also be operated from the production room.

We had the worlds worst air conditioning system.  It seemed to work OK the first year, but never again thereafter.  It was a chilled water system, but never truly chilled anything!  For heating, we had resistive baseboard units, which kept the power company well, but didn't heat much of anything.  Storm windows would have helped!.

I did a Sunday morning air shift, which included some music, and many taped religious and public service shows.  I liked doing that shift because it allowed me to operate every piece of equipment in the place, and catch failing operation before it caused trouble during the week. (knob setting different from last week? Find the bad tube, ETC.)

There was fun, too.  Like the Sunday morning when I found everything the UPI had sent since about 1:00 AM on a single line.  The news director had spliced the paper from the old box to the paper in the new box.  The model 15 Tele Type machine did NOT handle it.  First thing on the log was news, so here I go, scrounging through the sandwich and fruit remains, ETC in the waste baskets to come up with some news.  Actually it was stale, but what could I do?  Nobody listened anyhow. I was, and still am, the worlds second worst news reader!

Tony writes: The photo was taken in the WRAN production studio, not the air studio.   We were all visiting Schneider that night. For some reason, I felt inspired to cut a promo for him.  It really was a great promo...  clocks ticking, alarm bells, ducks quacking, babies crying, reverse reverb of Schneider's name, and some bohunk rocker shouting "rock and roll!"... Gene used it for the rest of his run at RAN.

I was at NBC for most if not all of 76 and perhaps 75 as well. Immediately before that, I was working part-time at WQIV in NY (around 74-75) and earlier at WXLO from June 73 to sometime in 74.  The photo was taken in June of 1975.

My spotty run at WRAN began around 1969.  It was the week after Woodstock, whenever that was.  I was working at WDHA on alternate shifts with some other
dj who went to the festival and never returned, forcing me to work without relief.  Pete Arnow and Bob Linder were out of town for several days and could
not be reached.  No other employee was available. I got fed up, quit, and signed the station off in the middle of the afternoon. DHA's morning dj, who
happened to drop in to loot the record library in the absence of management, reluctantly put the station back on about an hour later.  By that time, I was already on the air at WRAN. ... I was back at WRAN the next summer but no air shifts were available. Instead, Al Wunder hired me to paint the building.   At some later point, probably in 71 or 72, Wunder fired me for playing an unauthorized song.   He called me at home to tell me my services would no longer be required.   I refused to accept that and immediately drove to the station to argue with him.  He ended up offering me my job back...  He agreed, ... probably out of the realization that he'd have to go back on the air himself to fill my shift.