Browse Items (8 total)

Box 6 Folder 26: "This is folder 26, dated November 22, 1972 is… rather, there’s a receipt in there dated November 22, 1972, which is just purchasing something from the Electronic Supply House in Birmingham for WJLD. Looks like Ben Franklin purchased…

Box 2 Folder 49: "We’re up to folder 49 which has an original picture of Ben Franklin, engineer Ben Franklin and his wife. I don’t remember her name although I spent a lot of time at her house, trying to get some things in order out of Ben’s files.…

Box 1 Folder 52: "Moving along to folder number, box 1 folder 52, are pictures of Ben Franklin and he is inside the 3801 Bessemer Superhighway in Bessemer the middle rack provided link service to the Red Mountain transmitter in 1948, Red Mountain…

Box 1 Folder 25: "This is box 1 number 25, which is from 1945, which is also a coverage map of WJLD when it was 250 watts. It was printed on the back of WJLD stationary dated December 20, 1945, which was a letter to Ben Franklin who was the engineer…

Box 1 Folder 19: "1 number 19. 1943, a picture of Ben Franklin shaking hands with Walden Patrick McKim who was an engineer at the original transmitter building located at Blue Lake, an old quarry that serviced WJLD studio in the Gary Hotel in…

Engineer Ben Franklin (Ben) continues in this 1993 interview recounting his stories of early Birmingham radio.

Ben Franklin (b. March 12, 1919, Lees Vernon Parish, LA; d. May 10, 1998, Calera, AL) was a radio electronics engineer and eventually a station owner (WBYE in Calera) with a 60 year history in the field. He turned the transmitter of WJLD AM 1400 on…

Shelley Stewart, pioneer Birmingham disc jockey and announcer, reflects on his career in Birmingham radio beginning with WBCO and WEDR in 1952, then WENN, then WJLD, then WENN, then part owner of WATV. Retired from radio in 1999.