Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1962)

OUR RESPECTS to Carl Joseph Meyers, vp-engineering, WGN Inc. 'Nothing is impossible with electronics' Carl J. Meyers is such a modest man you must tug and tug to get him to talk about his varied engineering accomplishments before becoming vice president and manager of engineering and operations for WGN Inc., the Chicago Tribune's subsidiary operating WGNAM-TV there. But his considerable human warmth and practical skills long ago earned him more nicknames, friends and professional respect than would be necessary to rank him a broadcast pioneer, one of the molders of the complex "nuts and bolts" that make modern radio-tv work. WGN-Inc.'s new $3.3 million MidAmerica Broadcast Center stands today in northern Chicago as the climax of his technical design achievement. And just early this month top Tribune and WGN officials surprised him with a major luncheon to honor his 50th year in radio and his 38th with WGN. Setting the Pace ■ "Nothing is impossible with electronics." That's the motto Mr. Meyers has made practical in his experience, even though he humbly avers, "I'm not an inventor, just a darned engineer who grew up with this business." Radio-tv's leaders, however, credit him with much more than that. Carl Joseph Meyers was born Jan. 9, 1902, at Owensville, Ohio, one of seven children. The family soon moved to Cincinnati and young Carl went through public schools there and worked in his spare time to earn money for his radio wireless hobby. He had been bitten by the radio bug when he was but 10 and most of his spare hours and nickles went into the neighborhood radio clubs popular then. Many of these included older boys and young men who tutored the junior members and helped them learn the wireless code and principles of this promising new art. Top Level Help ■ During high school years his radio club corresponded with government agencies on equipment design and he recalls long-hand letters from such pioneers as Dr. Lee De Forest answering their questions. By 1916 he had won his "ham" license and in late 1918 he earned his commercial license. Early in 1919 Mr. Meyers joined a New York firm which did maintenance work on the radio gear of ships of the United States Lines, including early voice equipment. He soon found himself in his own business making custom yacht installations and home radio receivers. In 1922 Mr. Meyers was asked by Chicago friends to join them in a business venture under the name of Radico to develop and make radio sets. He built a station for them, WGAS, and later that year left Radico, acquired the license for WGAS himself and moved it to Chicago's Marigold Gardens with the new call of WW AY. While operating this station with "subsidies" obtained from talent agents and orchestra leaders working there, Mr. Meyers met the wealthy criminal lawyer, Charles E. Erbstein, who hired him to develop his amateur radio interests into a regular broadcasting facility. Building Bigger ■ Late that year Mr. Meyers began to transform Mr. Erbstein's WTAS Elgin, 111., into one of the country's most powerful stations, to be heard coast to coast — pumping as much as 2.5 kw into the tubes when they would take it. Soon radio engineers came from all over the U. S. to see his water cooling rig that used Model T. Ford radiators to dissipate the heat generated by the early tubes. In this early period Mr. Meyers also helped others develop other Midwest stations, including WDAP Chicago atop the Drake Hotel, which became WGN in 1924 under Chicago Tribune ownership. The Tribune hired Mr. Meyers for WGN on Oct. 1, 1925, and promoted him to chief engineer on Christmas Day of that year. He immediately began design and construction to achieve even greater power and built WGN's next transmitter at Elgin across from WTAS (also soon acquired by the Tribune and eventually merged into WGN). Meanwhile his handiwork in remotecircuit design had helped develop to a fine art, regular band, sports and special events pickups all over the Chicago area and major out-of-town events, too — football classics, Indianapolis auto races and Kentucky Derbies. Mr. Meyers also pioneered in early recordings, aluminum discs cut by a diamond needle and played back by a cactus thorn. By the mid1930s his engineers were cutting acetate masters to syndicate programs as well known as the many popular network shows which WGN originated live in those days through systems engineered by Mr. Meyers and his staff. Auto Radio Practical ■ In 1928-29 high-ranking Tribune officials loaned Mr. Meyers to the Chicago Police Department to develop squad car radios which he believed could greatly enhance law enforcement effectiveness. It was a secret project. When finally disclosed it was so outstandingly successful that law officials from all over came to study and duplicate. It attracted auto industry men as well, for it proved auto radios could be practical for John Q. Public, too. During the early 1930s Mr. Meyers headed the communications facilities committee for Chicago's World's Fair, out of which came innovations of mobile and special shortwave gear for radio. Then in 1935 WGN opened its extensive studios in Tribune Tower, all designed by Mr. Meyers. During World War II Navy Commander Meyers labored in Washington, D. C, on secret aviation uses for radar, tv and guided missiles. When he returned to WGN he asked to be excused from intensive fm plans to devote full time to development of tv, research he had begun in 1927. Tv Opens New Era ■ The fruitage: WGN-TV took the air in early 1948 and soon Mr. Meyers' numerous technical developments and component designs became standards for the industry. Within two years his crews had 22 cameras and three remote units to work their heavy schedules of live studio shows and remotes. Mr. Meyers married Madelon Lagerstrom of Elgin in 1926. They have one son, Jack, now 34, also at WGN-TV. Mr. Meyers gave up flying his own planes before World War II, but he still enjoys photography as a hobby. His top avocation though is showing his granddaughter a good time at his lodge on the Chippewa Indian Reservation in Wisconsin with the rest of the family. BROADCASTING, October 15, 1962 129