The Sound of Public Radio

Editor’s Note: Ever wonder who’s behind the sounds of public radio? John Holt was that radio sound man — our fly on the wall to enable us to glimpse some of the exciting people he recorded, including Marian Anderson — not in her famous 1939 broadcast, but in her interview years later when John was the sound engineer. He has regaled us with his stories in our memoir-writing classes. This story is just one of them.

Also, be sure to read John’s bio by clicking on “Authors” on the black menu bar and then scrolling down to his name.  

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I was 25-years-old and working as chief engineer of WPAG, an AM/FM radio station in Ann Arbor, Michigan. A close friend told me that she had seen a job opening that would be perfect for me. It was 1974, a year after the start of National Public Radio. I read the job description and knew she was right.

On October 1, 1974, I began as the Assistant Chief Engineer of WMUK, an NPR member station operated by Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan. I had two on-air shifts: a classical program from 11 a.m. until noon and SHOWTIME, a program of Broadway shows, that aired from 1 p.m. until 2 p.m.

I was also the mixing engineer for interview and music programs. Music ranged from classical such as the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra to the bluegrass program GrassRoots.

The news director did daily interviews with visiting dignitaries and politicians. One interview stands out in my memory. Marian Anderson, multi-award winning African-American contralto, was in Kalamazoo to perform with the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra in 1977. Ms. Anderson was a civil rights pioneer best known for her acclaimed concert at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C, on Easter Sunday, April 19, 1939. The venue had been arranged by First Lady Elenor Roosevelt after Ms. Anderson was refused permission to sing to an integrated audience at Constitutional Hall by the Daughters of the American Revolution. Listening to the recording of Ms. Anderson Singing defiantly “My Country, to Thee We Sing” still gives me chills.

The news director, Tony Griffith and Ms. Anderson sat down and I got the nod to start the tape. Tony said, “Welcome back to Kalamazoo after 39 years Ms. Anderson.” She looked across the table at him and replied, “It’s nice to be back in Kalamazoo and it was nice to enter through the front door of the Burdick Hotel.”

Another remembrance from these interviews is not the actual interview, but what happened beforehand. Jack Northman Anderson came in for an interview. He was one of the founders of investigative journalism. The term “Muckraker” was often used to describe him. Charles Colson of Watergate fame wrote in his notes that “Jack Anderson should be targeted for assassination.”

All interviewees were required to sign an agreement allowing WMUK to use the content of the interview for certain programs and possible submission to the network. Mr. Anderson read the agreement, put a big X across the entire page and then signed it at the bottom. Nevertheless, the interview was completed and used as indicated in the crossed out section. The university lawyer said it didn’t matter, all that mattered was an indication that he had read it.

I loved radio drama, but I was too late as by 1960 drama on the radio was over. But at WMUK I was involved with radio drama — recorded and occasionally live in front of an audience.

Western Michigan University had a department called Audio Services managed by Eli Segal. Eli was raised in New York and his father was a network radio actor. When Eli was a child he sat on the control room floor and listened while radio drama was produced. He shared my love for the content and used his position to produce this type of programming.

One of our best series was “Future Tense.” The program was adapted to take place in Kalamazoo, Michigan with scripts from “X Minus One” and “Dimension X” which were broadcast on NBC Radio in the 1950s. The original programs were described in The Science Fiction Encyclopedia as “…the best science fiction series in any medium.”

Some of these adaptations were broadcast live with an audience in the Kalamazoo Civic Theater and others were recorded in Elis studios which I had built and maintained.

Actors for the live performances were drawn from the community at large. The studio recordings used Detroit actors who had worked on “The Lone Ranger” and “Sargent Preston of the Yukon.” Detroit had been a hub of radio drama rivaling New York and Los Angeles.

In addition to serving as the recording engineer I also did physical and mechanical sound effects. One of my favorite effects was horses. I had a wooden box with three sections. One section was filled with rocks, another with sand and the last with straw. Coconut shells were used for the sound of shod cowboy ponies and rubber plungers for the hooves of Native American ponies which were shoeless. We used doorbells, a telephone ringer and a small hinged wooden door. Many sound effects were played from recordings. At performances the audience could watch me working the sound effects. I dropped a five-pound bag of flour during one performance to provide the sound of a man being hit by a car. In that show the university president, who had sat on stage through the whole performance, came to the microphone and gasped as the body came to life on the table in the morgue to end the show.

I enjoyed working at WMUK and especially the friends I had made there, but there was no path to advancement. I was 32 years old and ready to move on.

I had married in 1978. Our home base was now married student housing at the University of Michigan where my wife, Doris, was a Ph.D student. Doris encouraged me to dream.

An opportunity to build a public radio station from the ground up was posted. It was to be the first public radio station in the state of New Hampshire and it was a once in a lifetime opportunity. The budget was small and the obstacles to success were so large that many more qualified engineers (at least on paper) were not interested in the job. Doris urged me to apply. New Hampshire Public Radio is now in its 43rd year.

Copyright © 2025 by John Holt