The music from the clock tower at the center of campus has become such a familiar sound that many of us take it for granted. As I was running late to class the other day I cut across the grass in front of Morton, walking right past the clock tower. The fight song was playing loudly, reminding me I was already late for class, but I looked up to notice the “bells” stagnant. There was music ringing but the bells weren’t moving.
I got to wondering…Where is the sound coming from if the imposter bells weren’t actually doing any work? I spoke with Curtis Bohnsack, the Campus Life Facilities Specialist, and programmer of the clock tower, yes, programmer. “All I do is push the buttons,” he said, “and sometimes turn a key.” The explanation for the buttons and keys? The entire clock tower is electronic.
That’s right, all of the tones played at half past, on the hour, and at noon and midnight are controlled electronically from a computer system in a Morton hall control room. All the towers operator must do is plug in a chip coded for a particular song, and a computer does the rest of the work.
This also explains how the university is able to play festive songs throughout the year. “We play the Adams family at Halloween, Christmas and other holiday music around fall exams, and of course both the fight song and alma mater that you hear every day.” The electronic system also allows a certain amount of flexibility, should an occasion ever arise needing a specific song. “After the Virginia Tech crisis we were able to play their fight song from the clock tower following the memorial service.”
“A fully fledged bell system would take a clock tower four times the size to house, and would have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars more,” he further explained. The clock tower, which was donated by the graduating classes of 1999 and 2000, cost over 10,000 just for the hardware and program needed to run it. The physical tower was a great deal more on top of that.
Beyond budget and size constraints, the reason UNCW is unable to sustain a full bell tower? “We couldn’t afford a hunchback to ring the bells,” joked Bohnsack. In all seriousness though, the man power and money needed to maintain a real bell system would be unrealistically expensive.
“unrealistically expensive” is an unrealistic judgement. Your electronic system will probably fail and be unrepairable inside of ten years, while real bells last forever and their mechanisms are simple to maintain. There are dozens of colleges and universities across North America which have real bells, played by real people, that are a real part of campus life – not just a vaguely pleasant background noise. Explore gcna.org to find examples not very far from you.
so interesting! love your blog! can’t wait for the next article!