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Harold Turner at the WGN console, March 5, 1951
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According to Steven Ramm of Philadelphia, PA (stevenramm@aol.com): "The WGN organ started as a 2/7 Wurlitzer in a studio in the Bismark hotel. It was a repossessed from a band leader who defaulted on his payments to Wurlitzer and resold to WGN. That can explain the unusual specification which included a brass trumpet. When the WGN radio studio was built at Tribune Tower, WGN had the Kimball Company rebuild it as a 3/10 adding 3 Kimball ranks, a Open Diapason from 16' (extension was Diapason pipes not Diaphones as Wurlitzer would have done), a church style English Horn and a Clarinet. The organ had 2 consoles, one in the studio where the chamber was located and another in a remote studio on the first floor. The organist had to listen to the organ through earphones in the remote studio. When the organ was removed from WGN the Kimball portions, including the console were sold to a private individual, as only the Wurlitzer portion was installed at Mundelein. The Kimball console was severely damaged and the 16' Open Diapason was destroyed in a residence fire in Wisconsin. Both the WGN organ and WLS organ were heard regularly through the late fifties, with staff organist Harold Turner providing a half hour program each Sunday morning. The WLS organ was also heard on Sunday mornings on a program which featured reading the Sunday funnies to Chicago kiddies. It was also heard at noon every day on a live Prairie Farmer interview/variety program called the Noon Show featuring long time staff organist Howard Peterson at the Barton. The Prairie Farmer studio on W. Washington was abandoned after ABC bought the Prairie Farmer and moved the broadcast operations, and the Barton was sold, leaving WGN as the last of the major stations with a pipe organ. After Harold Turner retired, the organ was used infrequently, usually for programs by outside groups, as the radio staffers preferred using the Hammond as it could be moved around." Jon Habermaas of Chicago provides some corrections to Steven Ramm's account above: The [WGN] organ was originally a 2/7 Wurlitzer which had been repossessed by Wurlitzer from the original owner, a band leader, for failure to pay for it. It was a special with brass trumpet instead of the standard trumpet. The original WGN organ which was in the studio in the Drake Hotel consisted of Flute, Tibia, Viol d'Orchestra, Viol Celeste, Tuba, Vox Humana and Brass Trumpet. When the WGN building next to Tribune Tower was built they contracted Kimball which was still active in organ building to enlarge the organ with the addition of a Diapason, Clarinet and English Horn (Cor Anglais) and two new 3 manual consoles (which were identical) with an external combination machine. The one console was located in the studio into which the organ spoke and the other in a studio on the first floor. (The organist had to listen to the organ through ear phones) The first floor console, for obvious reasons, was not popular with the organist was sold off early on which would account for Balcom and Vaughan obtaining it. The fire damage to the console occurred after the organ was donated to Archdiocese of Chicago and the Wurlitzer portion incorporated into the organ at Mundelein. The combination machine controlled both consoles and junctions on it are labeled for console A & B. There are several other errors....original WGN studio was in the Drake Hotel, rather than the Bismark...Hope this helps clear things up. |