Occasionally people will share their memories of KACH Radio, Franklin County, Idaho, or Cache Valley with us. This is a page where we can share those letters and comments. We thank everyone who contributes for their thoughtfulness. It is great to preserve the history of great landmarks like KACH Radio.
April 27, 2007
Just Thinking: I have become an old man lying awake at nights thinking of the past because the future does not have goals to attend. My thoughts drifted to the radio station in Preston and I wondered if anyone was around that remembered the beginning of the station.
I was born in Preston and lived in the vicinity my early years until I graduated from PHS in 1943. While I was attending Utah State after serving 3 years in the US Navy, I worked on the weekends with Curly Dockstader pouring cement around Preston. We poured the foundation for the radio station as well as the anchor points for the tower guy wires. In July 1948, I worked for a week with 2 college students from Oregon State that had a contract with a steel erection company from Portland, Oregon to install the tower. The three of us raised the tower in a week with a power winch on the back of a truck, and a Pole that we raised the sections up with. We put the first sections up, then put the next section up on top. After that we placed the pole, with the hoist cable attached, on the raised sections. then raise the pole another section, place another section, etc until we reached the top. My job was to hold the section being raised away from the tower so that one of the other fellows could maneuver the section to the mouthing points and bolt them together. The third person ran the winch. I am not sure any more how tall each section was or how many sections we raised, but in my mind I recall the tower being about 300 feet.
Over the years when I have returned and made my trek to Mink Creek to visit my family graves, I always remembered the three of us putting up the tower for the person we always called "Radio Pete" Peterson. My first memory of him was driving his sound truck around the streets of Preston advertising for the businesses. I am almost 82 and with my passing, the last of anyone associated with the radio station in the early years will probably be gone. No one will be around to say, "I remember when". Incidentally my son, Bruce, worked at the radio station while he was attending PHS about 1966. I also understand that Dave Nash, a classmate at PHS was the manager of the station at some point in time.
This little note may not be of much interest to you, but for my sake I thought I should record it just in case someone might ask about the radio tower. Incidentally "Radio Pete" told me the reason that the tower is located where it is because he was going to flood the marsh area and the radio waves would reflect off the water and he would get better coverage and reflection. I do not ever remember every seeing the area flooded, but maybe the lake area above up the road a little ways my do that.
Thanks for listening to "an old man" think about the past. There may be a few people from my era still living around Preston, but most of us scattered around the country because of wars, work, and the ability to travel.
Thanks,
Robert W. Baird