We receive a lot of great questions. Sometimes we just can’t find a satisfactory answer. Sometimes we find an answer, but we can't find someone to talk about it. And since this feature is primarily for the radio, that's a problem. Still, other times, we'll find an answer that really doesn't fit the amount of time budgeted on-air for OKI Wanna Know. Once again: this is radio, where timing is everything. So, we've cut the Gordian Knot by bringing you this online-only edition of OKI Wanna Know.
Curiosity about a 'curious' structure on Camp Ernst Rd.
David Alexander Parker writes: "There is a curious structure at 6331 Camp Ernst Rd. It appears to be a U.S. government facility. For years I've wondered and searched for an explanation of what it might be. It looks vaguely like a '60s record player. A low square building with a flat round disk on top. About 50 or so white gum drop-shaped objects on stakes are spaced equally around and about 2-3 feet inward from the circumference and above the disk. At the center of the disk stands an approximately 20-foot nose cone looking structure."
The curious structure is southwest of the Cincinnati Northern Kentucky International Airport, and that was our first clue. We contacted the Federal Aviation Administration, where a spokesman was very happy to answer the question, but only via email.
"This structure is a Very High Frequency Omni-Directional Range (VOR) station. It is ground-based navigation equipment that pilots can connect with, and it provides them with precise information about the plane's location in the sky."
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To put that in English: VOR is a VHF transmitter, which sends a radio signal, including Morse Code and sometimes a repeating voice of the station identity, which pilots can use to determine where they are in relation to the transmitter, and by association, the airport. It's used for low-altitude aircraft and high-altitude jets. VOR supports the arrival and departure of planes, and helps air traffic controllers guide planes in by giving pilots a frame of reference.
What's 'up' at Music Hall?
Greg Hudson says: "Now that you’ve got us looking up in Music Hall, what scene or scenes are depicted in the ceiling painting? Why was it chosen? Who painted it?"
Hudson is referring to a previous OKI Wanna Know about the ceiling rosettes.
Friends of Music Hall, formerly known as the Society for the Preservation of Music Hall, is all about promoting and educating people about this local landmark.
Thea Tjepkema is the Friends of Music Hall historian. She says it was created by Conrad Arthur Thomas, a New York artist, and it's believed — but not confirmed — he was commissioned by William F. Behrens, an interior decorator who had worked with Samuel Hannaford.
The mural is named "Allegory of the Arts," and done in Neo-Baroque style with figures that represent music, literature, science, and history. Tjepkema says she has taken a deep dive and identified the nine muses in the mural, their mother, Mnemosyne, and father, Zeus.
RELATED: What's on the ceiling of Music Hall's Springer Auditorium?
But if Music Hall opened in 1878, and the mural wasn't painted until 1905, what was there before? Tjepkema says the ceiling of Springer Auditorium had a wood coffered-beamed ceiling in a grid with gas chandeliers. In 1895, a renovation project added a plastered dome in the center, and the rosettes in the grid.
Tjepkema says the chandelier, which was donated in the 1970s by J. Ralph and Patricia Corbett, is just about due for a cleaning. But that's a different story altogether.
Ruminating on a road name
Adam Arnett says: "There are a lot of peculiar and unique road names in the greater Cincinnati area, but one that has always stood out to me in Anderson Township is Wolfangel Road. How did this road get its name?"
Sometimes, you'll see it, or hear it as Wolfangel, and sometimes as Wolfangle. A former president of the Anderson Township Historical Society says yes, for years, the street was known as Wolfangle. But Don Perry says that was wrong, and has largely been corrected.
Perry says it's a family name out of Germany. He says the Wolfangel family of Anderson Township lived on the road as far back as 1880. A road named after the family who lived at the end or along it is quite common. For example: Fields Ertel, or Kemper Lane.
"My grandfather and Jimmy Wolfangel worked with the Township and/or the county engineers to get the sign changed," Perry says. "I have no idea why some of the names changed or even when. I only know that 'Wolfangel' is the correct spelling."
Today in Anderson Township there's a Wolfangel Cemetery, a private retreat, and a florist.
One ancestry website lists an Annie Wolfangle who lived in Anderson Township. Her parents and most of her brothers are listed as Wolfangel, but her sisters are all Wolfangle. Which is curious to say the least. However, it can't be a local spelling error, as the Ellis Island Foundation lists people with both spellings arriving in New York City as early as 1849.
So, yes you can find people named Wolfangle, but the street in Anderson Township is Wolfangel.
RELATED: Who were the roads Reed Hartman and Fields-Ertle named for?
About that stadium property tax cut...
Mike Feeny says: "When voters voted for the stadium tax they were promised a property tax cut. Did the tax cut ever happen?"
Well, yes and no.
Technically, taxpayers were promised a tax rebate, when voters passed the stadium tax in 1996. Thirty percent of the money raised by the half-cent sales tax would be returned to homeowners. The rest would pay for the construction of Great American Ball Park, and what is now Paycor Stadium.
Over the years, the promise hasn't always been kept. Most recently, as our Becca Costello reports, only 12.4% of the sales tax revenues were returned. That's more than the year before, but less than the year before that.
RELATED: Hamilton County homeowners will get a higher stadium tax rebate in 2024
But, the amount of money the sales tax was expected to generate hasn't always lived up to expectations either. The payments on the stadiums stays fixed. And Hamilton County commissioners have approved smaller rebates so they wouldn't have to dip into the general fund to make those payments. As several boards have said before, doing so would mean cuts to other county services and programs.
