That Keener Reverb!

One of the trademarks of 60s top 40 radio was the rich reverb behind the DJ's voices. Like the 5 second beep sound that accompanied all on-air phone calls, reverb was a staple of the Keener sound through much of her prime.

Jim Jenkins, who worked at WIOD in Miami in the 60s wrote us recently, asking about Keener's unique reverb unit. Who made it and what happened to it?

For much of WKMH/WKNR's existence Jerry Martin was chief engineer. He was the guy who had to tweak Keener's multi-tower array to produce the strange coverage pattern the FCC required to protect nearby stations during day and nighttime. So when the reverb craze caught on, it was up to Jerry to implement the stations particular iteration.

The unit was a custom designed device utilizing the same spring technology Laurens Hammond plugged into his famous Hammond Organs. In fact, Hammond copped the concept from AT&T, who used a spring to simulate the delay then inherent in long-distance telephone calls.

Years after Keener's demise, Steve Schram, keener13.com's co-founder found himself working in the WKNR studios during the time when the Keener brand made a brief come-back as WWKR. He asked Jerry Martin whatever happened to the Keener reverb. Jerry showed Steve a box of random components. "This is it," he said. The unit had been cannibalized over the years and all that remained were a few random parts.

Some radio stations turned to off-the-shelf products to simulate the echo chamber feeling. Chief among these was the Fisher K-10 Spacexpander, a tube reverb unit that was sold as a plug-in for Fisher stereo systems in the 60s. Those with more meager budgets waited for a local rock band to break up and bought a Fender Twin Reverb amp, stealing the Accutronics Type 4 spring reverb tank that was screwed to the bottom of the amplifier case. The Type 4 used Hammond's design and was behind the rockin reverb heard on just about every surf guitar instrumental ever recorded. Listen to any Dick Dale record for a taste. A company called Sound Enhancements, still makes and sells a variety of Accutronics reverb units.

The digital audio work stations we use to create music these days come with a plethora of reverb plug-ins, some claiming to accurately re-create the spring loaded excitement of the Keener days. But our bet is that nothing can quite pass side-by-side muster to Jerry Martin's artistry.. part of what continues to propel WKNR to the front of our collective memory.