Ralph "Bud" Galow, a Broadcast Pioneer

Ralph "Bud" Galow
WRCV Studios
circa 1959

Broadcast Pioneers member Ralph "Bud" Galow was an engineer for KYW Radio and WRCV Radio for decades. This picture was taken in 1959 by then 19 year-old R. Alan Campbell. Campbell at that time was an assistant for WRCV Air Personality Mac McGuire. Campbell later went on to have his own career in broadcasting.

Bud Galow said:

The board is a reconditioned old RCA board and we got those after 1955 when NBC switched with Westinghouse. I'm using a long carriage typewriter to keep the studio Log and the program schedule is on the console table. Looks like I'm still smoking and I know I gave that up around 1961. The rack behind me is one of the Master Control Room racks and there is a CONELRAD teletype in the background. I know I'm looking into the "W" Studio (WRCV). Could have been the Jack Pyle Show or the Jack Rattigan Show. Very Interesting!

Long-time WCAU Tech Charlie Higgins tells us that CONELRAD stood for "Control of Electromagnetic Radiation." All of us who were around during the Cold War remember this emergency broadcasting to the public in the event of attack. It existed until 1963 when it was replaced with the the Emergency Broadcast System (EBS).

The e-mail address of the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia is pioneers@broadcastpioneers.com