Bill Haygood

Radio

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Listen to classical music via the Internet.

My personal favorite classical radio station in all the world.

For about a year, I worked part-time for FM radio station WRFM in New York City. At that time, WRFM had a "fuzzy" music format--mostly golden oldies of the early 1960s. WRFM had a sister station: just across the hall were the studios of (at that time) the only commercial shortwave radio station in the United States--WNYW. For a time, they called themselves "RNYW" which stood for "Radio New York Worldwide". But, the FCC reminded them that the letter "R" was not allocated to this country and that they would have to stick to their assigned call letters. My most vivid memory of those hours spent at WRFM was hearing through the hallway the following during many Spanish language broadcasts over WNYW: "Esta es Radio Nova York"!

One day at WRFM, one of the station's office staff gave me a pair of tickets to a Carnegie Hall concert. I asked my (at that time) wife (now my ex) if she would like to go. She said yes, but on the night of the concert, she decided she would rather stay home and watch TV. So, I went to Carnegie Hall and the seats turned out to be front row center! I heard a marvelous concert by the Philadelphia Orchestra and a very young and (at that time) unknown Israeli violinist named Izhak Perlman!

I received my first amateur radio license, WA7BGZ, in 1965 while stationed as Officer-in-Charge at the U. S. Coast Guard Loran Transmitting Station at Point Arena, CA. During my tour of duty aboard USCGC Rockaway, I used my amateur radio license to make third party calls between my shipmates and their families ashore. I allowed that license to lapse and received my current license, WB7FCC, in 1976 during my employment with the U. S. Postal Service in Salt Lake City, UT.

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