From Carl Windsor, Ph. D. Professor of Communication Studies at WWMC (90.9 FM) Lynchburg, VA
It was on December 7, 1965 when (then) WJML (FM) 98.9 first went on the air as the
pioneer FM station in Northwest Lower Michigan. John Casey was station manager, Millie
Cole was WJML's secretary, Claire Baum was the Program Director, and I (Carl Windsor)
was the News Director in my first radio job. Bill Supernaw (from Charlevoix) was the only
local announcer. Marvin Verink was Chief Engineer. The station couldn't broadcast from
their studios under the porch at the Perry-Davis Hotel as the FCC had not yet licensed the
studio-transmitter link, so the first week's broadcasts originated from the transmitter site
"atop beautiful Boyne Mountain". Needless to say it took a four wheel drive vehicle
(supplied by the Perry-Davis hotel) to get to and from the site in early December. Nearly a
year later (12/6/66), WJML AM went on the air at 1110. By then I had graduated from NCMC
and moved to Cheboygan where I was News Director (and the only on-air talent there was
for six months) at Les Beiderman's Paul Bunyan Network station WTOM TV Ch. 4 ("Top of
MIchigan Television") sister station of WPBN TV Traverse City. Since 1971 I have been a
college professor teaching broadcasting to over 6,000 students, most recently at Liberty
University in Virginia. And it all began on a chilly December morning "Pearl Harbor Day"
12/7/1965 in Petoskey.