Ralph’s duties with the campus radio station expanded beyond teaching speech and radio. Soon he became director of public relations with an office and a secretary in Palmer Hall. Yet broadcasting was his clear passion. WRSD started a program that sent Montevallo’s name around the world. The broadcasts were born out of a three-way stake in a powerful radio tower in Birmingham. Ralph saw to it that Alabama College held a 22% stake in WAPI. Auburn Polytechnic Institute and the University ofAlabama were other partners, airing programs ranging from football games to country singers and church services.
Perhaps a desire to elevate the programming with classical music brought Ralph and Putnam Porter together in Palmer Hall at the Skinner Organ. Putnam Porter was a charismatic teacher of the organ, with a deep command of classical music.He and Ralph created 30-minute programs; Ralph introducing five or six pieces of music which Putnam played on the Skinner Organ in Palmer Hall. They took advantage of special wiring in the organ allowing clear recordings, and then transmission of the music to WAPI in Birmingham. (HOW?) The broadcasts were carefully timed at just under 30 minutes, with music ranging from Bach to 20th century composers. Ralph and Putnam named their broadcasts “Music from Montevallo” and were delighted when the show was picked up by content-hungry national radio networks.
WAPI provided the link to broadcasting stations for US Armed Forces bases around the world. Perhaps the soldiers would have preferred interviews with Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart, Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope and Jane Russell. But classical music remained an important part of the programming.
One critical admirer of Armed Forces Radio broadcasts was Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser. He overthrew King Farouk and tossed out many colonial ties to Great Britain. But he kept the US network reaching Egyptian listeners. In 1956, the Suez Canal crisis gave Nasser another reason to support the US Armed Forces Radio. Great Britain and France allied against Nasser, but US President Dwight Eisenhower did not support their threat of re-colonizing Egypt. “Music from Montevallo” continued to be heard across Egypt, Europe and the Middle East.
Twenty-six of the broadcasts are available today. The National Association of Educational Broadcasters, forerunner of National Public Radio, hosts them on a web site called Unlocking the Airwaves, Organ Music of the Centuries. Producer credit goes to Alabama College, with Ralph Sears as Host, Putnam Porter as Musician.
Unlocking the Airwaves reminds us that accessing “precious frequency space” was important as commercial radio expanded across the dial. Many of the programs including Music from Montevallo aired only once. This website gathers the old recordings and brings back the sound of Montevallo’s earliest radio programs, produced by Ralph Sears.Here is a link to a recording w. Ralph Sears as host, Putnam Porter as organist.
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