Ladies and gentlemen, start your watches. The Nauvoo Bell chime is back again on KSL Radio at the top of each hour.

After about a month without the bell's toll, caused by a complicated conversion to digital radio, the signature "clang" returned to the air Tuesday.

Rod Arquette, KSL Radio vice president of programming and operations, said engineers found a way to resume the tradition of airing the bell at the top of each hour.

Digital, or high-definition, radio is the rough equivalent of HDTV, and the switch to this higher quality signal means a seven-second delay from the point of origin to a radio listener's ear. It took KSL Radio (AM 1160) some time to find a way to continue the four-decade tradition of broadcasting the bell's ring at the beginning of each hour.

KSL Radio received some listener feedback after the chime stopped, although many never noticed its absence or were unaware of the historical significance of the bell, which is on Temple Square.

According to Russ Hill, news director of KSL Radio, at the beginning of each hour a microphone opens on Temple Square as the Nauvoo Bell rings, marking the official top of the hour.

Exactly when the Nauvoo Bell began chiming on KSL isn't known. However, the memoirs of the late Arch Madsen, former KSL president (courtesy of John Bennett, long-time KSL listener), provide a two-year range:

"The Nauvoo Temple bell had been languishing in an obscure corner of the old visitors center on the southeast corner of Temple Square," Madsen wrote. "I decided to use its chime as the hourly time signal for TV and radio. It was activated by electrical impulse from the Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C., replacing the time 'beep' that had been used for many years. We installed a small microphone in the bell and connected it by a special telephone line to our studio."

The chime was so impressive that soon after, a competing Salt Lake radio station started using a tinny cowbell sound for their time signal and called it their "Navajo Bell," according to Madsen's writings.

Madsen became president of KSL Radio in 1961, and he and a photograph of the Nauvoo Bell were part of a Days of '47 Parade float on July 24, 1962, which could mean the airing of the Nauvoo Bell chime originated during one of those two years.

Hill's research on the 1,500-pound bell's history shows it's generally believed the bell was a gift from English converts to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when they arrived in Nauvoo. It was hung by early Latter-day Saints in the tower of their temple there.

The bell was hauled across the plains to Utah by the second group of pioneers to arrive in the Salt Lake Valley.

As the pioneers moved west, they rang it each morning to signal when it was time to begin that day's travels. Then, after sunset, it was rung to signal that the pioneers had night watchmen on duty protecting their families.

The Nauvoo Bell is located between the Assembly Hall and the Tabernacle on Temple Square. A plaque at the base of the bell tower says the bell is a symbol of religious freedom. It is part of a 35-foot tower, the Relief Society Memorial Campanile, to honor the start of that women's organization in 1842.

---

E-mail: lynn@desnews.com