outside the Paducah area. Radio was a hobby to many, and tracking stations from points afar was entertainment itself, and many stations began observing "silent nights", when they remained off the air in order to reduce interference with the reception of distant signals. At the beginning of March 1923, WIAR announced that it would stop broadcasting on Saturday nights. Fan club The fans of radio came together to form a club in February. Charter members set Edwin J. Paxton, owner of WIAR, as the president, and the club had 130 members within two weeks. The club said it represented about ten percent of the radio set owners in Paducah, which the paper estimated to be about 1,000. The radio club held meetings at the car barns of the Paducah Railway Company at Fourteenth and Broadway and would occasionally have control of WIAR during the evening broadcast hour. In March, the club called for people who could "moan to the bones" to play "craps by radio." While the details were sketchy and the call was riddled with the slang of the day, the club made it known that those to the west and north of the station would be appreciative of "southern songs, games, and pastimes, and a real 'OONTZ' party would create no end of interest. A later review of the dice game reported that four "colored performers" were given two dollars in nickels, a pair of dice, and then invited into the studio. After getting over a bit of stage fright, the program was reportedly "a riot", and letters came in asking for more programs of its type. Community service In addition to providing local programming, the newspaper promoted its station's services to the community. The Paducah radio club, along with WIAR and the Sun, started a fundraiser to purchase a radio for Paducah's orphanage, then known as the Home of the Friendless. Radio fans wanted to share the new world of radio with the children and reasoned that the innovation was meant to instruct as well as entertain. According to a March 19 plea in the Sun: Possessing a radio set, the children of the Home can tune in each day and evening, and the simple process of tuning in will open up to them a new world rich in charm and mystery. The infinite happiness they may attain from such a gift will repay whatever sum may