DT5Y@vax5.cit.cornell.edu (Peter Fleszar) (10/13/89)
Hello there. Just a couple of wee little points from little ol' me.
I was in Chicago for the first time on Friday 10/6. Really loved it.
But I was in for a little disappointment when I went to IBT
headquarters downtown looking for the Telephone Pioneer museum. Seems
that IBT is gutting ("renovating") the inside of their building, so
they decided to remove "expendable" spaces like the aforementioned
exhibit room. The receptionist was friendly and sympathetic - she
said that the management types never realized how popular the room
was, but that it probably won't be coming back. I had to satisfy my
telephone fix at the centrex display on the street level. Not quite
the same. :-(
Also, WVOA is now the 105.1 classical FM station in DeRuyter, NY,
formerly WOIV (and a number of other things). It's owned by Forus
Communications, a religious broadcasting group, and broadcasts
satellite-programmed classical music to a hell of a lot of cows in
rural upstate New York. I actually preferred the former religious
format - when in the right mood, I considered it high comedy. :-)
The new WVOA was once part of the New York State Rural Radio Network,
a group of five stations covering the territory from Buffalo to Albany
programmed from the current WQNY in Ithaca. The network was put on
the air by the GLF farm cooperative, was sold several times, then
wound up in the hands of ConTel (a favorite organization of this news-
group). The FCC cried foul, so ConTel was forced to divest in an
interesting fashion -- they turned all five stations over to Pat
Robertson's CBN for *free* in 1970 or thereabouts. The stations were
sold off individually in the early 80s.
The usual incoherent ramblings from Peter Fleszar, pre-unemployed
liberal arts student at Cornell University.
dt5y@cornella.bitnet dt5y@cornella.cit.cornell.edu
...cornell!vax5.cit.cornell.edu!dt5y 72000.1471@compuserve.com
[Moderator's Note: I think -- I hope! -- the Telephone Pioneers will have
their exhibit once again when the renovation is finished. Maybe if a few
Digest readers called IBT Headquarters Public Relations Department (312-
727-9411) and asked nicely, something would be done. Or, write IBT at
212 West Washington Street, Chicago, IL 60606. It would really be a shame
to see the exhibit gone forever. PT]