Just a couple memories worth mentioning, from the Ragged But Right dude: 1. Moving day, from the Miner’s Foundry, to the Bridge Building. The discovery that the new record (LPs) room floor would not support the anticipated load. Several broadcaster/ carpenters, led by Paul Dahms & myself, installed a support beam, under the floor. This was on the day that we were moving into the Bridge Building at 401 Spring Street. Ragged But Right show was one of the last shows broadcast from the Miners Foundry location on that Saturday. The Outro Song at 2 p.m. was “Packin’ Up” by Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee. It was learned much later, that the same song, by the same artists, was the last song that KFAT broadcast, prior to going off the air, in January, 1983. Sounds kinda cosmic, to me. 2. The Saturday that Richard Tewes, Michael Keene, Dan Bertsch, Che Greenwood and myself, built the new transmitter shack on Banner Mountain. With a lot of hammering, sawing, grunting, cussing, etc, all the while listening to bluegrass music. The shed got up in spite of the bluegrass music.
Michael Keene was using a nail-gun to fasten the roof sections together, when he quietly and calmly asked Che to pass up a “nail puller.” Che asked “why did he need it,” and Michael quietly replied, “I need it to pull the nail out of my finger, that I just shot down with the nail gun.” I believe it was harder on those of us around him, than Michael-those Hawaiian broadcasters are a tough bunch. When Eric Rice showed up after the Bluegrass Show to help, I believe we tried to blame the accident on “banjo music.” Somehow, it did seem reasonable.
by Thomas Greener
