Golden Heart Plaza clock programmer puts holiday sound in downtown

If you've enjoyed the Christmas music at Golden Heart Plaza in downtown Fairbanks during the past few weeks, you can thank John "Benny Benevento.The clock tower is supposed to play a random tune five minutes after every bell chime. But for much of its history it's been silent,X-431 Diagun a victim to Alaska engineering obstacles including an earthquake, interference from car auto starts and ice-clogged electrical conduits.The clock tower has been the project, and sometimes the nemesis, of Benevento, a retired electrical engineer, since the Fairbanks Rotary Club put it up in 1990. But as of this spring, Benevento's latest system has been successfully bringing music to downtown Fairbanks. During the year it plays a mixture of patriotic music, show tunes, jazz and old traditionals. Beginning in December, it switches to a holiday format.

Benevento, 78, wore a Christmas-colored hat with the words "bah humbug," as he stood in a snowbank and worked on the controls of the clock tower at Golden Heart Plaza on Tuesday morning.Benevento is contemptuous of a handful of clock tower-programmed songs including "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" and "The Little Drummer Boy." But far from being a Scrooge, he takes his responsibility of adding Christmas cheer to the downtown square seriously.He stood in the snow for more than an hour, blowing on his hands occasionally to keep them warm, as he manually programed the clock to play a Christmas song after every 15 minute bell chime from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.."It's got some Christmas music, but there should be more," he said." His favorites are the more-religious songs like "Hark the Harold Angels Sing" but he programs the clock to play a variety, including the ones he doesn't like.

Benevento grew up in an orphanage in Massachusetts and got his electrical engineering training by correspondence course aboard the USS Roanoke while serving in the U.S. Navy. Before coming to Fairbanks, his work for NASA brought him to Wallops Island, Va., where he worked alongside some of the first astronauts in the U.S. space program including "Sam the Monkey," one the first animals in space.He settled in Alaska in the mid-1980s to help start the Poker Flat Research Range,LAUNCH X-431 Master AUTO DIAGNOSTIC Scanner a rocket launching facility on the Steese Highway operated by the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute.