To the Editor,
I read with interest your story about the 50th anniversary of WGLT (May 2016). Of course, for some of us, WGLT is 54 years old!
As the article reports, the closed circuit version of WGLT began in 1962, operating from the dark recesses of upper Cook Hall. You could only hear the station in the residence halls, since WGLT was piped in via the heating system.
I remember the efforts of Ben Paxton and Ralph Smith to expand “broadcasting” at ISNU very well. It may have been a low-power student station, but as a reporter for WGLT, I wrote and read the news and got to interview singers like Judy Collins; Peter, Paul and Mary; and others. It was an extra-curricular activity that turned into a career.
Now, after retiring from nearly a half-century of broadcast news on radio and television, I can still proudly say my first broadcast “job” was at WGLT.
Tom McIntyre ’66
To the Editor,
I sang in the ISU Christmas Madrigal Dinners for five years, from 1977-1981, in what must have been the golden age. It is just so highly ironic and sad to me that at the same time I am reading about ISU traditions, or the lack of them, or how some have been around since 2002, that I also learn this most beloved tradition has been discontinued after 60 years (November 2015)! John Ferrell and Bruce Kaiser must be turning over in their graves.
Online comment
Peter Tiggelaar ’81, M.S. ’83
To the Editor,
I was a freshman at ISNU in 1959 and recall the time capsule being sealed and placed that fall. It’s amusing to find that the capsule has been “discovered” like King Tut’s tomb. Some of us from back then are still around, along with artifacts from the ancient 1950s.
Online comment
Recovery of South Campus time capsule
George Vrhel ’63, M.S. ’69
