Although KWK with Thomas Patrick Convey at its helm was started with the proverbial shoestring, the credit does not belong solely to him.
Correlative to his ceaseless efforts to bring the little station out of troubled waters into being one of the finest of the city are those of Mrs. Convey who has been at the station ever since the first six months of its existence.
With its beginning back in 1927, KWK occupied but one small room on the top of the Hotel Chase with Thomas Patrick as the chief and sole announcer. Because he was working too hard and because the two had always been accustomed to sharing the same interests, Mrs. Convey volunteered to lend her musical training and capabilities to the cause. Like most men, he demurred at her working but she won out and came down there as program director, assistant announcer and performer all in one.
Mrs. Convey, whose home is in Chicago, is a graduate of the Chicago Conservatory of Music, and it is with this musical background as well as with the years of experience that she is able to choose and direct the program of the station. She is known to the audience as Peggy Austin.
When the station was first started, Mr. Convey came to work at 6 o’clock in the morning – announcing and directing programs. Mrs. Convey was the accompanist – part time announcer and kept things running smoothly. During the baseball season, Thomas Patrick would announce until time to go to the game, then Mrs. Convey played records announcing them as they went on until he got to the ballpark. Until he returned from the park she would keep the ball rolling in the same manner.
“Mr. Convey and I have always worked together on things and exchanged our ideas,” she said. “There are many things about the programs and the artists for which he has to depend on me and of course I know very little about the mechanics of the station. So we are dependent upon each other.
“Radio grows more and more interesting and so I could not leave off my work as program director if I wanted to, for to me it is the most absorbing interest that I have ever known. It is constantly changing and ever new.”
Radio and Entertainment Magazine May 28, 1932 (unsigned)