One of WBT's most outstanding operators, or probably it would be better to say upstanding operators, because he stands in his socks alone about six feet, six inches in height, is John Henderson. John's the kind of a fellow who unfolds when he stands up, and who has to stoop when he enters most doors. He has a friendly disposition when not aroused to anger, and then he has a tendency to break into bits the first thing that comes to hands, especially announcers.
When it comes to control-room "error-less-ness," if for color we may employ a bit of mechanical word invention, Jean Williams, a plucky little man of five feet, five, takes the prize. For hour after hour, week in and week out, the dials he turns, the plugs he inserts are right, to the split fraction of a second. And programs come and go, but the Williams infallibility goes on indefinitely, smoothly and serenely, sans fatigue, sans impatience, sans all that is not correct.
Ralph Painter is a control man, but he has the voice of a gladiator. And woe betide the artist or announcer at WBT whose inattention or error causes Ralph to "speak" to him through the double plate glass windows of the control room! A deep breath, a marvelous diaphragmatic control, a frown that would scare Medusa—and then the tones of that "Paintorian" voice come into the studio with most telling effect. But Ralph has been known to smile occasionally, and even to talk in moderate volume at times.