M.D. Smith, III was in business as Birmingham Awning & Tent Co. After Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941) , the Quartermaster came to see us about war work, since we made tents, awnings, and taupolines at Birmingham Awning and Tent, and practically said we had to go in war work. We made everything from parachutes to underware, as well as tents, during the war.

We then formed Marson and Company--a 50-50 partnership, M.D. Smith III and Kirby J. Smith--we were known as in the needle trade. They loaned us $50,000 and furnished all material. We paid back the $50,000 after the first item. We started making bandoleers (shell clips) at our location at 213 South 21st Street, Birmingham, Alabama. We bought 40 sewing machines, a cutting table, and turned out 5 million bandoleers.

During that time, the Quartermaster seemed pleased and came to us and asked us to make parachutes. They were all white and all shroud lines too. We had a time as they were all cut on bias to center top ring. There was always a government inspection in the three plants, to even count the stitches as per specs. After the first 425 came off and were inspected, we finally had one accepted. I'll never forget MD III held it up and said we had conquered the order to parachutes. We went on and made and shipped a total of 75,000 parachutes. At a price we received $50.00 a parachute, we made a ton from them (MD IV was 1 year and 3 months old in March of 1942. I'll never forget MD III said to MD IV, we are on our way!)

We were also awarded contracts for 100,000 barrack bags, men's shirts, general issue, and jungle hammocks, as the war was invading through the jungle, through the Philippines. They were very complicated, made to hang between two trees, and had hammock canvas bed with sides of netting, a zipper on all sides, and a waterproof top. We made 25,000 jungle hammocks and were paid late, as not many plants in the United States would undertake them. We had then bought two other buildings, each two floors, to make these items. We worked three shifts at all plants with 800 people (seamstresses) and long cutting tables in each plant. They gave us the patterns of heavy-like Formica. We laid 50 layers for each cut. The minimum wage was 40 cents an hour.

Everything was rationed and every month, every adult received a book (similar to food stamps) for gasoline, meat, sugar, alcohol (one pint per person a month).

The day the Armistice was signed, every war contractor received a wire to cease. They sent 18-wheel trucks to collect all materials. No matter what stage the item was in, they picked it up.

1945

We sold most of the commercial sewing machines, but kept some and when white material was starting to be made again, we bought white broadcloth and made 1,000 white shirts for Arrow. We paid for cloth, labor, thread, buttons, and everything. We did make a little, but decided MD III would go back to WBRC Radio. During the war days, I made $500 a month and MD III made $1000 a month. We had a big savings account. When he went back to WBRC, I stayed and refurbished Birmingham Awning (Now MARSON) and ran it. The "MAR" was from the Marcellus and the "SON" was from Davidson (what M.D. is the abbreviation for). The logo had a orange sun over the name.

Here is a photo of the building on 213 South 21st Street around 1945. Notice the nice cars parked in the alley beside the building.

1946

Anita was born the first year back in the normal business, so we sold Birmingham Awning and Tent and Venetian Blind to Guarantee Awning in Birmingham for $7500. I had a nurse at home and I had a couple (cook and chauffeur) on place all time. You see why MD III gave me a 1945 yellow Cadillac when Anita was born.

1946

Mrs. Hanna applied for, and received, a construction permit to put WBRC-FM on the air. It was the world's most powerful FM station, operating with a power of 500,000 watts. During 1947, her son, M.D. Smith III, joined WBRC-AM and FM as salesman. Smith was later promoted to Program Director and Vice President of WBRC.

1948

FM radio did not sweep the country as expected, and due to large losses, the FM station was taken off the air in June of 1948. Mrs. Hanna then turned her attention to the emerging medium of television. Many felt that TV, like FM, was just a flash in the pan and would never be anything more than just a novelty. Mrs. Eloise Hanna had never lost her pioneering spirit though , so she borrowed $150,000 and building began. The photo of her at her desk shows the nameplate mis-spelled "Elose", but it was an expensive gift and she chose to leave it that way.

WBRC-TV on the air on July 4, 1949. It was put IN the FM building that was already on Red Mountain.

1949

July 4, 1949 - - - A yearbook shows the details of Channel 4 with original power of 15KW Visual and MDS III as the only contact as PD. In early 1953, the FCC made them change to Channel 6 to avoid interference with Nashville. It cost a lot to modify the transmitter to change channels, but it had to be done.

When WBRC TV went on the air, there were only 12 TV sets in Birmingham, and they were in dealers' show windows. M.D. Smith III was appointed as Operations Manager of TV. Oliver Naylor was salesman; Evelyn Allen, Traffic; Bob Farris, Film Editor; Felix Lewis, Cameraman; and Hardy Carl, Chief Engineer. Nora Harrimontrec was Artist. So with a staff of seven, we were off and running.

We were affiliated with the DuMont & NBC Television Networks. However, there was no cable connecting us with New York, so all network programs came to us on kinescope or film.

M.D. Smith, III and Mrs. Hanna continued to add equipment and personnel to the TV station. Live studio cameras were added in 1950, and by 1953 the staff had grown to 15. Today WBRC TV, Channel 6, employs more than 150 people.

1951

Fall, 1951 - - - [ Note from M.D. Smith, IV - My father told me about how creative they had to be, even decorating the small studio with toilet tissue for background effects, since there was virtually no budget for props. ] So here is that creativity in action with the costumes of the staff of WBRC-TV (and probably radio also) at a station party around Halloween of 1951. Of this group of five, M.D. Smith, III is on the left in the dress with the bandage on his leg. Don't they make a darling couple? And here is a Group of nine around the table. And finally, The whole staff and all their costumes. TV folks have always known how to have fun.

1952

A Newspaper Article & photo appeared on Mrs. Hanna and a visit to Europe and the Middle East she made with a Press Group sponsored by the U.S. State Department.

Election Returns of 1952 when Eisenhower was elected. Note the NBC, Channel 4 logo in the top of the photo. The station changed to Channel 6 shortly after this night. (Early 1953) The FCC said there was too much overlap with Ch. 4 in Nashville, (making viewing in Huntsville very difficult) so the FCC ordered WBRC to switch over to Channel 6. There was a fair amount of expense doing that, but it had to be done.

Channel 4 Election Returns just after getting live cameras in November of 1952. Kirby Smith (Mrs. M.D.) can be seen on left. She is woman in dark hair just under man holding sign.

1953

In this year, Mrs. Hanna decided to retire and sold WBRC TV/AM-FM to Storer Broadcasting for $2.3 million.

(By Kirby Jones Smith) After a year, we started our own broadcast station and formed a corporation.

1955

M.D. Smith, III and wife Kirby Jones Smith, put radio station WBYE AM on the air in Calera, Alabama. Built from scratch. On 1370 kc with a power of 500 watts, daytime-only license. One of the sales mottos was, "Your Best Buy By Far Is Bye." It was the first top 40 radio station in the area. M. D. Smith, IV worked one summer in 1956 at the station as music librarian, assistant book keeper and remote technician (set up remote mics for Sunday Church remote broadcasts). The station is still on the air and this photo of WBYE-AM was taken in July of 2002. The building is exactly the same size and layout as when it was first built, on the road out of Calera on the way to Montevallo, Alabama. It was built on the same floor plan as WBRC's original transmitter/studio building on Finley Blvd.

Here is M.D. Smith, IV standing under sign on 7-27-02 and another of the road sign on the highway.

1956

M.D. Smith III bought WJIG AM in Tullahoma, TN, already on the air on 740 kc with a power of 1000 watts daytime only. Henry Beam, who worked as a salesman for a beer company, became General Manager/Sales Manager.

M.D. Smith, III resigned from Storer Broadcasting to devote full time to the radio business and the two stations.

1958

M.D. Smith III buys WHBS AM, 1550 AM, (5,000 watts day and 500 watts, directional antenna at night) from the Huntsville Times, changes call to WAAY, and changes format from Adult Listening music to Rock and Roll Top 40. A petition is circulated to boycott the radio station and run new sound out of town. Several employees quit that cannot tolerate Rock and Roll music. Dick Essner becomes Chief Engineer as well as Disk Jockey. M.D. Smith IV, who has been working as Record Librarian, also began some Disk Jockey duties in the summer of 1958, filling vacation shifts.

Here's one of the weekly "Family Survey" Top 60 record lists of August 1959. A bit closer shot shows the four DJ's pick hits of the week. The DJ's are Dan Akens, Dick Essner, Jerry Lee (aka Jerome Tisdale) and Dee Scott (aka M.D. Smith, IV). This was list #31 for the 31st week of the year. This week, Dee Scott's Pick Hit of the week was "Tall Cool One" by The Wailers on Golden Crest records.

At WAAY Radio, commercials were played on a pair of Magnecord PT-6, reel to reel, recorders. Each commercial, jingle and promo was on a 3" reel of tape and running multiple spots required great dexterity to rewind and rethread one recorder while the other was playing. The rewind motors would break a finger if it got in the spokes of the tape hub during rewind. You had spare heavy duty leader tape, a tape splicer and splicing tape to continue to replace the leader that would whip off sometimes during rewind or the fast threading you had to do. Spotmaster cartridge tapes that came in later years, were fantastic.

1959-1960

M.D. Smith, III, at the strong urging of his wife, Kirby Jones Smith, buys WFBS (Fort's Best Station) in Ft. Walton Beach, FL from French Brown. The station had gone on the air in Ft. Walton during the summer of 1956 on 950 kcs at 500 watts, daytime only. FCC approval of the sale came in May of 1960 and MDS III changed call letters to WNUE, the "Nue" station in town with the Top 40 format that's always "Nue". Here's a photo of the first coffee mug WNUE ever made. It says, "For Better Business Tomorrow, WNUE Today." Station was on 950 Kcs Daytime. By changing frequency to 1400, station was able to go night-time and broadcast 24 hours a day. Power was 1,000 watts day and 250 watts night. Kirby Smith also is involved with the bookeeping, accounting, record list, music, contests and promotions.

1963

M.D. Smith, IV graduates from college in June. In college he worked for WNPT and WJRD as an first-phone engineer. He also worked for the student AM station WABP as the Sales Manager. This is his first Business Card.

Begins to work for WAAY-Radio as Merchandising Director, engineer and disk jockey. We are planning to put a TV station on the air on Channel 25. Charles Grisham plans to put one on the air on Channel 19. The lone station, WAFG, Channel 31, which has been struggling, decides to get out of the business faced with the impending competition (Sign on Car for ch. 25) and in the Summer of 1963 offers to sell it to Smith Broadcasting for $500,000.00 That is about what was planned to be spent on Channel 25, so it is decided to take their offer. Jim Beasley from Sweet Sue in Athens is the majority stockholder who confirmed the sale. The minor stockholders in Huntsville did not want to sell, but had no choice. The deal was concluded in July and we apply to the FCC for an ownership change. Meanwhile, Channel 19 begins construction on property next to channel 31. Channel 25 is later awarded to the Alabama Educational Television authority. Robert (Cactus) Gay (age 23) is one of the engineers employed by WAFG-TV when it is bought by Smith and stays with the company until the present time. The station was broadcasting on a 125 foot tower with 240,000 watts. Call letters are changed to WAAY-TV.

First mascot was a beagle hound.

November - The FCC finally approves the sale and the Smiths take over Channel 31 with a staff of 17 people. M.D. Smith, IV is Operations Manager. Maury Farrell is Sales Manager and MDS, III is a remote General Manager. Channel 31 (WAAY-TV) is affiliated with the ABC television network. Channel 19 (WHNT)also goes on the air in November with a 250 foot tower and 600,000 watts. Channel 31 had ONE Video Tape Machine. It was an Ampex, VR-1000. It used 2" tape. It was monochrome (or course). It took up a space of 4 feet, by 4 feet by 6 feet and that did NOT include the TWO 6 foot high equipment racks of electronics (all tubes) to run the machine. It had massive power supplies and tubes had to be changed every day to keep it running. Only one spot on a break could be on Video Tape since there was no way to splice or edit tapes together. The other commercials had to be Slides and Audio Tape. A picture of Master Control with projectors and slide chain in the foreground and the operator (Lamar Gilbert) at the "switcher" in the background.

When we bought the station, they were reading all commercials LIVE from the announce booth. The first thing we did was put in Audio Cart Machines with trip cues for the slides to eliminate the announcer and the switcher didn't have to read along with the copy and trip the slides at the right time. There was a Live Romper Room show every weekday morning. It was the major production of the day. We used two, mismatched B/W studio cameras. One was a General Electric Image Orthicon camera with a 3 lens turret and the other was a General Electric Videcon camera with a zoom lens. We liked the zoom lens a lot and eventually replaced the turret with another very expensive "Zoomar" zoom lens (as seen in photo) we bought used at a good price. In the photo, M.D. Smith, III is running Camera 3.

The slides for commercials were shot on Black&White "reversal" film. When it was processed it was a slide ready to show, rather than a negative to make a print from. That station had a very small, old B/W film processor that processed 16mm B/W film for the nightly newscast at 6 and 10. It ran slowly at 4 feet per minute and it took 100 feet of film for less than 3 minutes of film, much of which would be edited out and thrown away. However, we tried to only shoot what we wanted to use to save on film costs. If a photographer could get 2 or 3 stories on one 100' roll of film, we thought he was great. Our 6 and 10 P.M. News Casts were called "The WAAY of the World". The station also owned one OLD Auricon sound 16mm camera. It was an optical sound track and the electronics (tubes) used numerous batteries for the filament voltage, plate voltage and motor power.

Late November - Just two weeks later, President Kennedy is shot and ALL TV stations cease broadcasting commercials for 5 days. This is tough for a struggling new TV station.

WAAY Radio, meanwhile, is making a lot of money as the dominant radio station in Huntsville and the revenue is used to pay the losses at channel 31 during these first few struggling years.

1964

January - WAAY-TV broadcasts the first of the ANNUAL C-P Telethons from our studios. Running the camera is M.D. Smith, III and in front of it is Maury Farrell. "Cactus Gay" also takes a turn on camera, as does almost everyone in the station during this event.

1965

March - M.D. Smith, IV AND M.D. Smith, III both get pilot's licenses. The first aircraft owned by WAAY Radio and TV was a Cessna 172 SkyHawk. Here is a photo of the tail of that aircraft with the "NewsHound" logo that has been in use at the radio stations for 9 years. Aerial film of tornado damage in parts of Western Alabama are shot later that month.

Here is an aerial photo of WAAY Radio made about the same time. You see the three tower directional array maintained by Chief Engineer Robert A. ("Cactus) Gay. The center tower is self-supporting and was used originally when the station was daytime only. The other two are guyed and were put up to form the directional array to allow night time power and 24 hour operation.

August - Anita Smith and Wayne Johnson are married. Wayne goes to work at WAAY Radio in June of 1966 after getting a degree in Marketing at U of A.

1967

Channel 31 builds a new 400 foot tower (the old was 125 feet tall) and increases power from 240,000 watts to 1,240,000 watts in order to serve Florence. With this tower and power improvement we are able to convince NBC we would be a far better affiliate to have than WMSL, channel 23 located in Decatur. The Network agrees. In January 1968, Channel 31 switches to NBC to improve ratings. Maury Farrell and M.D. Smith, IV have picture taken in front of Giant Floral Peacock in studio.

M.D. Smith, III heard a song in another town, and found out that the music was available for purchase and a special pressing of a 45 RPM Record. The company would either write your song lyrics or you could do them yourself. Mr. Smith decided to have the record made for Huntsville and Ft. Walton Beach (Home of WNUE Radio). He wrote the lyrics for both songs and the TV station pilot (M.D. Smith, IV) flew the company airplane for the aerial shots of the two cities. A month later, "Huntsville, My Home Town" was born. This link is a page with BOTH album covers, words, and the music you can download in RA or .MP3 format.

In 2009, Gareth Stearns used the "Ft. Walton, My Home Town" (version 1) song and put (version 2) old Ft. Walton photos with it. These are the two versions and each is over 30 mb large. You can click to download and view, or "save target to" and save to your hard drive. Thanks Gareth.

August - After both Smith's get Multi-Engine ratings, the station converts to it's first of four Piper Aztec Twin Engine Airplanes. This is the Piper PA-250 (N31TV) with engines of 250 horsepower each. It is 60 miles an hour faster than the Cessna 172.

1968

February - Channel 31 Signs an agreement with Jackson Way Baptist Church to begin televising the Sunday worship service with the first LIVE microwave remote in the valley. Maury Farrell and M.D. Smith, IV look on as Rev. Jim Dorriety signs the agreement. The broadcasts begin in June of 1968.

April - Channel 31 converts to Color Video Tape and Color studio cameras. Having bought a used color film chain/island from WTOP in Washington, DC in 1965 and the first station to broadcasting anything local in color. The Two new 2", Quad rotating head tape recorders (RCA TR-70 and an RCA TR-22 (used but "high-banded" for color)) were a major improvement. Before we only had one Black&White Ampex VR-1000, all tube video tape recorder. It was a monster and good to retire it. It sat in storage for a year with no one wanting it, and was finally sold for a few hundred dollars as parts. The big RCA TK-42 Color Studio cameras were huge. They each had one 3" Image Orthicon tube for the picture and three 1" vidicon tubes for the 3 color guns. The cameras cost $50,000 each. A complete set of replacement tubes was $12,000 per camera. As the first station to broadcast live newscasts in color, we were very proud. Channel 19 had a ratings edge over us, even in B/W, but they also bought new color cameras about 8 months later.

1968

August - After 6 years working for WNUE ( 1 yr.) and WAAY (5 yrs.) Radio, Dan Whitsett, takes Maury Farrell's place as General Sales Manager of Ch. 31. At that time the TV station was gross billing about $300,000 a year with about 25 employees.

1968

ABC signs up with WMSL, Channel 23 who get a frequency (Channel 48) moved to Huntsville and move from channel 23 in Decatur to channel 48 in Huntsville. They build a 900 foot tower, but are on a mountain that is 500 feet lower than Monte Sano, so their antenna is not that high above average terrain. Maury Farrell is their new general manager working for Frank Wisnett of Decatur. Their new call letters are WYUR ("Your" TV station). They are bought years later by American Family Life Insurance company and change calls again to WAFF (American Family's Finest).

1969

The late 60's and early 70's PAMS jingles packages - Listen and remember

WAAY - PAMS solid-rock-2-song.mp3 1:42 full song.
WAAY - PAMS solid-rock-2-series.mp3 5:49 package.
WAAY - PAMS series 42-q-superstar.mp3 8:14 package.
WAAY - PAMS a-capellas-40.mp3 14:15 package.
WAAY - PAMS 34-cut-27.mp3 6:07 package.
WAAY - PAMS shouts.mp3 6:13 package.
WAAY - PAMS a-capellas-31-32-33(1970).mp3 9:54 package.
WAAY - PAMS series-29.mp3 7:21 package.
WAAY - PAMS holidaze.mp3 2:06 package.

"Fifteen-Fifty . . . W - A - A - YYYYYYYY!"

1970

Channel 31 decided to convert from B/W film for the TV news to Kodak's new color news film. We install a high speed color processor and tanks of color chemicals. The old processor operated at 4 feet of film per minute. We felt the new 20 foot per minute processor was a speed demon. It certainly used up a lot of color film at $10.00 per 100 foot roll (about 2 1/2 minutes of film). We processed and used about 10 rolls per day for the newscasts. This was a major expense to our station (about $5,000 a month).

1971

January - For a year, M.D. Smith, IV was the weatherman at 6 and 10 P.M. The maps in those days were painted on canvas with a plexiglass cover. The daily weather was drawn with "paint pens" of various ink colors. It had to be removed with lacquer thinner. The temperature boxes and the forecast was "menu board" with plastic stick-on letters. The nice part was that you could draw right on the map to explain what was happening.

March - WAAY Radio and WAAY-TV do our first major joint promotion. The Bridal Fair held at the Sheraton Motel on University Drive. It was a big success and made money for both stations, but it was a real problem deciding which salesman at radio or TV got how much commission from selling it. This and other logistical problems prevented many other joint promotions of this nature in the future.

1972

March - A newly Designed News Set and the first Meterologist, Walton Jones joins the anchor team of Adrian Gibson, Sam Depino and Ed Sisson. The weather maps are the same material, but get reversed.

1973

March - The anchor team grows. Dan Jamison, Sports Director is added to the team (back,left), along with Walton Jones (back,right) and (L to R) Ed Sisson, Adrian Gibson and Sam Depino.

September - The anchor team grows by one more. Tony Beason as Reporter & Anchor is added to the team. Dan Jamison-Sports, Walton Jones-Weather, Ed Sisson, Adrian Gibson and Sam Depino. We are on our way to Number ONE.

1974

February - We became Number One in news at 6 & 10 after three years working with the Consulting Firm of McHugh-Hoffman. We had not been #1 in news for over 6 years. We found out what it took overall to win in the ratings. Some of those things are still a secret lesson. A lesson M.D. Smith, IV never forgot.

The anchor team that was #1 in 1974 was (Left to Right standing) John Bradshaw (new-weather), Tony Beason (News), Dan Jamison (Sports). (Left to Right seated) Ed Sisson (News) Adrian Gibson (Anchor) and Sam Depino (Anchor).

April 3/4 - The April 3rd tornados (some people refer to April 4th, the day all the destruction was visible) gave us much publicity as the ONLY station with live weather radar to show the storms until ALL TV stations were knocked off the air at 11:05 p.m. when the last tornado crossed the top of the mountain at Monte Sano and Panorama. Fifteen people in Madison County were killed. Many more in other North Alabama Counties. The stations were off the air for 2 days. Phil McHugh of McHugh-Hoffman Consultanting was in town for a consulting visit at the time. Parkway City Shopping Center was nearly destroyed. It was later rebuilt as a Mall with covered center walkway. (Note: in 2001-2002 it was rebuilt again as "Parkway Place", a two-story and greatly enlarged Mall.)

Governor George Wallace (then in a wheel chair) sent our station a personal letter thanking us for our Radar Coverage warning the people of North Alabama and likely saving many lives in the area.

1975

February - To improve our Weather Radar, we added a digital, color system to it to make it easier for the viewers to see various intensities of storms. We were the first in Alabama with this innovation.

April - We began what was to be a long running campaign of "31 News Everywhere" with a bumper sticker campaign and cash & merchandise prizes. Viewers sent in photos of stickers all around the valley, including this one from Guntersville. Locations around the valley were filmed from a chopper. We put giant 31 Everywhere letters on the ground. One seen here in Big Spring Park in Huntsville. Other locations were throughout the valley as far as Florence.

We had a great set of music jingles used with on-air promos and radio spots. They basically said, "Look for us, we'll be there, 31 News is Everywhere." M.D.Smith, III and IV wrote the lyrics together for these jingles. The 60 second cuts could be split into two 30 second cuts for variety. Here are three versions in .mp3 format of about 1 mb each. 31 News Everywhere - Male - Full 60 vocals.mp3 which I think is the best cut. Then 31 News Everywhere - Female - 60 Vocal.mp3 and finally the "bumper"31 News Everywhere Bump vocals (long donut).mp3 which allowed for putting words inside the jingle.

1976

April - New 1,000' Tower - The board met and decided to replace our 400' tower with a 1,000' one. Took MDS IV, Cactus and MDS III meeting with Monte Sano Civic association and several homeowners in the area to get approval to build it. The erector set arrived on several flat bed trucks in late spring and here you will see photos of the 6 months period it took to assemble each tower leg, brace and thousand of nuts and bolts that made up each 30' section of tower. The Job of clearing the land, pouring guy anchors, assembly, erection, adding transmission line, lights & power and finally placing the antenna on the top, was massive. It cost $300,000.00 to build. Here are photos of building the newer 31 tower in 2004, but it was exactly the same as '76 This is how you build a really big tower. The last photo IS the old tower.

May - It's the bi-centennial year (1776-1976) and before the July event, Channel 31 constructs a HUGE set, we call the "31 News Center" and the look and type style matches NBC's News Center. Left to Right are Ken Rainey (weather), Dave Stanley (news anchor), Adrian Gibson (news anchor) and Rick Davis (sports).

Two nice close-up shots of Dave Stanley with the TV Monitor and Two-Way equipment. The other is of Ken Rainey on the freshly designed weather set.

" The Great American WAAY" was the Radio Theme during these few years and among other items, the "Great American WAAY" belt buckle in both pewter and bronze was created. Bob Baron was behind this idea and M.D. III hated to spend so much money. He got more of the pewter to give away, because they cost so much less. Here's a good close up of the WAAY buckle in Pewter ...... and the WNUE buckle in Bronze. These are rare collectors items. Thanks to Don Roden for the last two images.

December - The Chamber of Commerce of Huntsville announced that due to declining interest and sponsor support, there would be no annual Christmas parade in Downtown Huntsville that year. Bob Baron with WAAY-Radio, M.D. Smith, III and M.D. Smith, IV all got together and decided that WAAY Radio and TV would put on an "All Volunteer Christmas Parade" Everyone pitched in building their own floats, entries, and bands, and the Parade went on. That was the FIRST and TWENTY years later, WAAY-TV still has the commitment to see that our all volunteer Christmas Parade takes place. The location was moved from the route around the courthouse downtown, to a route starting beside the Huntsville Hilton and passing the Civic Center and looping the downtown area because of the size. The event attracted over 211 entries and close to 50,000 spectators.

December - Our 1,000 foot new tower nears completion (we began transmitting on it in January of '77) and we designed a special Christmas Card to send to all our clients and friends. Our tower is the tallest thing around and we figured it was so high, that even Santa might get tangled up trying to fly over it. Here is the outside and inside of the card.

1977

After 10 years as an NBC Affiliate, expanding into the Florence (Shoals) area, the competitiion from WOWL-TV became significant. With ABC we would have no competition in the quad cities area .....AND ABC has just become the number ONE network in the nation. We have just finished building our 1,000 foot tower. We go back to ABC and make a presentation to change to our station which has become #1 in News ratings in the past few years (still a close race with channel 19) while WYUR is a distant third in the news ratings. ABC agrees we would be the best affiliate and agree to the change. Dan Whitsett and M.D. Smith, IV negotiated the switch in New York in June. The affiliate meeting is over, so Dan and M.D.,IV fly to L.A. in July for the promotion manager's meeting. ABC affiliates are flying high with the ratings and are #1 for the second year. The theme for the fall campaign is "STILL THE ONE" using the popular hit song for a theme. The switch is made on December 11, 1977. Here, my son Brent (age 9) is holding the full page ad from the newspaper on that day.

A coffee mug was created with the "Still The One" logo and the 31 worked in. The reverse side of the mug had the full size 31 logo and call letters. The heavy, serif "31" has been used for many years. Soon after we would adopt the more modern 31 logo with the circle around it similar to WABC-TV, Channel 7 in New York. (See 1979)

1978

January - M.D. Smith, III wrote a motivational letter to all the Radio personnel and I (MDS IV) got a copy and also delivered it to the 31 TV people because I thought it said such good things. Here is that "New Year's Resolution" letter complete with a signature of MDS III at the bottom. It has been re-typed for the internet, but the signature is original. (Note: MDS III died in 1985 of cancer)

February 1978 - Judy and M.D. Smith, IV fly to Las Vegas to pick up our new Live-31-Eye truck that we bought and had customized. (B&W photo just after paint job) It was a very snowy and icy trip back in the van with one stretch taking 8 hours for 100 miles coming into Memphis. Here's the truck in Summer 1989 downtown and at the 20th Anniversary of Man on the Moon, live remote at the Space & Rocket Center.

1979

June - ABC network and Channel 31 continue to be tops in the ratings. ABC had used "We're The One" for a theme in 1978, but reverted to the music and logo of Still The One for the fall of 1979 and we make a new coffee cup sporting our new Circle 31 Logo for that year. Here is the back of the same coffee cup with the full station circle 31 logo. Notice the Red and Blue Racing Stripe that Scott Smith thought added a nice touch.

July - Bought our first Production Vehicle. It was a 1974 International Travelall that cost $2,000 used. It did the job and we didn't have to have production people use their own cars anymore and pay them mileage. Lew Koch was happy. Here is rear view of the unit and you see the original front of the TV station (no dishes or radar), and the guy anchors for the new 1,000 tower are in front of the unit. (see 1981 for the next production truck we bought).

1980

May - WAAY Radio installs and begins broadcasting from the new 50,000 watt transmitter on Pulaski Pike for all daytime hours. At night, the station still used the downtown studio site for the 500 watt directional array. The current slogan for the hit music is The HOT Hits. This mug shows the 50,000 watts, Stereo, and "The Hot One".

May - Channel 31 has great ratings after several difficult years against Channel 19 and so we celebrate with a picnic on the front lawn. Some of those attending of interest: Bob Baron (Weatherman), Don Roden (was asst. chief engineer and after short time as engineer with Ch. 54 who came to town in 1985 ,went on to be Chief Engineer of channel 19 before leaving for private business) and the NewsHound, as he was called, Dick VanValkenburg, who did all the wreck and hard news coverage with a Cannon Scoopic 16 film camera for years. He died from one of several heart attacks he had. Dick died in December of 1986. The ratings for the book were:

HOMES           Arbitron

6pm

31              71,000

19              59,000

48              14,000



10pm

31              51,000

19              39,000

48              12,000

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December 11, 1980 Eloise Smith Hanna died at age 87. (4-7-1893 to 12-11-1980)

1981

March - The FIRST "CHOPPER 31" takes to the air. This is the first time we have had a chopper for aerial photos (using fixed wing aircraft like Aztec 31TV in the past). It is one of many to serve Channel 31 since then.

July - Bought our second Production Vehicle. It was our first Truck It was a 1977 Van Dura that cost $4,000 used. It replaced the Travelall that we traded in and got $1500 off the price. Lew Koch was again, happy. It was kept until May of '87 when it sold for $1,250 and we again stepped up to a newer van.

August, 22 - (From 1979 to 1980, M.D. IV lost many pounds with Weight Watchers and begins exercising in races, including the budding new sport, Triathlons.) There were none in Huntsville, so M.D. IV, with the help of Bettie Higgins, Channel 31 puts on our first of many annual 3in1 Triathlons. A 3 mile run, 6 mile bike and 400 meter swim at the Natatorium. We have 400 entrants (and more wanting to do it) the first year. It peaks at 600 entrants in 1985 and then drop back to 400 in the late 80's and early 90's) The Sub-Theme of this event has always been, "To Finish Is To Win."

November - WKXJ-FM goes on the air on November 5, 1990. This is the first bumper sticker for 97-Kicks. It is a "Hot Adult Contemporary" format. M.D. Smith, IV and Robert A. (Cactus) Gay own the station under Marson Broadcasting. (Marson is an old name used by M.D. Smith, III during the war years in his manufacturing plant, Marson Company. It was the "Mar" from Marcellus and the "Son" from Davidson that formed the name.

The "oldies" music was bought on 10" Reel-to-Reel tapes and dubbed with great effort to the old "carts"(many came from WAAY and WNUE radio). Carts were the cartridge tapes that played commercials and music at the radio stations in the 80's to keep music sounding better and not getting scratched and dirty as in the early days when the actual 45 record was played on the air. The looked very much like the old 8-track music tapes, but were built differently. However, all the NEW music of the 90's came on CD and was played on a home type CD player. Eventually a new music "oldies" library was bought and the cart tapes were retired for music. A few years later, all commercials were put on computer disk and the cart machines were taken out of service forever.

September - The general manager, Harmon (Dutch) VanBuskirk, of WNUE for 25 years, finds a partner, Neil Braswell and decide to buy just the frequency and transmitter & tower and lease the building for 2 years. Dutch gets back on the air in October 1990 with a "Talk" format. It is satellite news and talk and Dutch has some live phone-in talk shows.

November - Channel-31-TV ratings come in to show our station the dominate news leader in Huntsville. The station is #1 for ALL newscasts, seven days a week in ratings, share and households. This is the strongest position the TV station has ever been in. The other stations continue to cut staff. Now both channel 48 and channel 19 have staffs of about 75, while channel 31 has a staff of over 125 with the plans to begin a new noon newscast on June 1, 1992.

M.D. Smith, V ("Dee") had been involved with the web site design and updates. Dee and his wife Kristen had their first child on 01-01-01 (it was snowing this day) and named him M.D. Smith, VI and call him Marc.

Certainly it has been more difficult for ISP's in the last few years and a lot of them have folded up. HiWAAY continues to improve the bottom line and while not making much money, we are not losing it, either. On this occasion, the 8TH (see logo) Birthday, we had a cake to share with staff and friends. Gathered behind the cake are (L to R) M.D. Smith, Redge Swing (General Manager), Charles Boley (dept. manager and one of oldest employees) and Scott Swing (Redge's son who is a "long-term" salesman). And closer, M.D. Smith cuts the cake to start the celebration.

A gathering of as many staff members as we could locate from the years 1963 to 1999. MDS IV created the "31alumni.com" website before the event. Here will be found tons of stories of past 31 Alumni (and current employees) along with many photos of them then as well as now. Great addition to the history website you are reading now. Here is the opening paragraph of my "welcome" speech from the web site.

"To have 50% of the adult audience for a newscast is powerful stuff. Yet, that’s what Channel 31 did in the 70’s, in the 80’s and early 90’s. We hit numbers that made history. All of you here tonight were a part of either the building process to get there, or being on top and trying to stay there. Either way, it was always a challenge, usually fun and at the same time we always had to make a profit to stay in business and grow. "

The photo is of Ken Rainey and Dave Stanley (weather and news anchors of mid 70's) with me. You will find many photos of the reunion taken at Ditto on that date and news about 31 that has occured since, like the tower collapse.

March - HiWAAY Internet Services is TEN years old this month

Two new products have been added this year to compliment the range of services that HiWAAY offers.

The first one is the Rocket Access accelerator for dial-up access. Running this software will increase speeds up to five times normal. Of course if you want blazing speed, you sign up for Broadband DSL service.

The other service is the HiWAAY Computer Clinic for sick computers. The clinic will wipe all the viruses, spyware, worms, trojans and other bad infections from your computer and add several protections programs to keep your computer healthy and non-infected in the future.

HiWAAY Internet Services launches the Network Services Division. Customers can now have HiWAAY install and maintain their LANS and equipment in addition to all their hosting, serving, and connection needs to the internet.

HiWAAY Internet Services moves to a new and more modern facility on Drake Avenue. More spacious parking in a village park atmosphere filled with other technical companies and doctor's offices.

After M.D. Smith, IV takes over as General Manager of HiWAAY in late 2008, son Bryan Smith moves from the Birmingham office to Huntsville to become Operations Manager and a more key part of the family business.