WCCH alumni gather for radio station revelry
Some people might have been confused.
Jimm O’Donnell ’80 arrived with a green bumper sticker curled around his black knit hat announcing “WCCH: 89.5 FM Stereo.”
89.5 FM?
Indeed, before WCCH could be heard where it is now, at 103.5 on your FM dial, the station first broadcast its 10 watt signal on 89.5 FM, a piece of nearly forgotten history gleaned during the college’s first-ever WCCH radio station reunion on April 30.
As more than 100 alums, faculty, and students gathered in and around the WCCH studios to reconnect and reminisce, O’Donnell and his former classmate John Epstein ’77 lingered in station manager Pat Labelle’s office, jabbering and posing for a photo by a piece of antiquated audio technology, a reel-to-reel tape machine.
“Old technology in the foreground too,” said Epstein.
“Some older than others,” O’Donnell replied.
Some alumni were surprised to see their names still etched into the ceiling outside the broadcast booth. Others brought in old LPs to autograph and post on the station’s vinyl wall of fame. They toured Studio A (the broadcast booth) and Studio B (the podcast room across the hallway), and hammed it up for cameras.
“It was an amazing night,” Labelle said later. “Even afterward, people were still pouring on the love. It was cool for me too to see all the generations and see how we fall in the lineage of the station.”
Along with the bumper sticker on his head, O’Donnell wore a white, Poco “Legend” album T-shirt under a black, pin-striped vest. In his arms, he cradled a 1983 record by The Cardiac Kids, a local band he worked with back in the day.
When he was a student at HCC in the ’70s, O’Donnell had a radio show called “The Dusty Turntable” and went by the handle “DJ Jimm O’D.”
“That was my name on the air, and I’ve been using it ever since,” he said. “Yeah, I was almost going to get it legally changed.”
“I should never have used Charles Manson for mine,” said Epstein. “That was a bad idea.”
(Disclaimer: The repartee between O’Donnell and Epstein left the impression that they were having more than a little fun at their interrogator’s expense.)
Nevertheless, Epstein and O’Donnell did confirm the accuracy of some previously published details on the radio station’s founding some 50 years ago.
The HCC Radio Club started in 1974, and, under the guidance of Everett Clegg, director of the college’s audio-visual center, began “broadcasting” as WHCC into the first-floor lounge between the Frost and Donahue buildings, the area now known as the POD. Epstein later joined the club and eventually became the station’s general manager as it sought funding to become a fully fledged FCC-licensed FM station.
On Nov. 14, 1977, the station aired its first sanctioned broadcast as WCCH, the original call letters having already been claimed by the FM radio station at Holy Cross College.
“That’s when I came along,” said O’Donnell.
In those days, O’Donnell reminded Epstein, the DJs themselves had to be licensed before they were allowed on
the air.
“We took a van to Boston,” said Epstein. “We all had to take a test.”
Eventually, Epstein, who still lives in Holyoke, got his degree in business administration and went on to start an advertising and marketing agency.
O’Donnell, now retired, also majored in business administration, after trying a few other things, but don’t ask him what he used to do for work.
“I quit,” he said. “I was overqualified. I got tired of punching clocks and people.”
“Punching people?” said Epstein. “That’s a little concerning.”
DJ Jimm O’D lives in Easthampton and now writes for “Live Music News & Review,” a website about music and concerts in the Northeast. You can read his reviews at: livemusicnewsandreview.com/author/jimmod/
He may — or may not — also be a chef.
DJ Alannah) reunites with retired HCC communications instructor and former WCCH station manager Stevie Converse (DJ Stevie C).
