do you remember wcau-fm in quad

[lawman]

When they were Solid Gold Radio around 72-73 on Sunday night, right after the Geator at 12 midnight, they had a specialty show called Music in Quad. Then for an hour they would play a new rock oriented album, supposedly in four channel. I did have a Panasonic four channel receiver that came with four individual large speakers with separate Stereo and Quad pilot lights. The Quad pilot would glow during the show but I never noticed any difference with the sound, which sounded like normal stereo, two speakers for each channel. What was that all about anyway, the show lasted a year, the only other Quad station I knew of was full time 104.3 out of NYC, which called themselves the Quadfather, but I never listened to them, so I don't know if they were in true four channel. I guess they didn't last long, what was Quad radio anyway and why did it flop.

 

[deepstblu]

WYSP broadcast in quad. I can remember listening to them on a mono radio, and losing every other line of the end of the Doobie Brothers' Black Water ("I wanna hear some funky Dixieland" was almost inaudible, "pretty mama come and take me by the hand" came through fine). Not enough people were wowed enough by quad to buy a new receiver, new turntable and two extra speakers, so in time it fizzled out.

 

[PTBoardOp94]

Quadraphonic flopped primarily because there were very few Quad receivers. And there were very few quad receivers for two reasons:

1) Consumer confusion. There were multiple Quad broadcasting standards. The FCC didn't adopt one standard until the mid 80s.
2) Limited consumer demand, in part because a 4 speaker setup would have required major space in the mid 70s. So for most listeners in most conditions, quad was no better than mono or stereo, since that is all the speakers most listeners had. Heck, I think some of the GM Delco radios in cars were mono only back then.

Basically Quad failed on FM for the same reasons the AM stereo failed.

 

[TheBigA]

In 1974-75, New York had a quad radio station: WQIV.

 

[HGN2001]

 

[lawman]

My OP mentioned that, they called it the Quadfather but by then I gave away my four channel Panasonic receiver and speakers, never heard them were they hard rock, how long did they last, and how long did WYSP keep the Quad. I just hope HD Radio doesn't have the same fate...

 

[kevtronics]

Here's some information on how the Panasonic quadraphonic FM system worked -- similar to CD-4 records, it used a subcarrier to provide the rear-channel audio:

https://www.quadrophonie.de/englisch/fm_quad_demodulator.html

But just like the CD-4 system, the subcarrier actually transmitted the Front minus Rear audio, while the regular FM signal transmitted the Front plus Rear audio, so that listeners without the decoder would not be missing the rear channel audio -- even when listening in mono.

If you were listening to a quad FM station and couldn't hear the rear channel audio when listening in mono, then that station was probably using a matrixed quad system, like SQ or QS.

 

[AMRocks]

I think all of the FM Quad stations were using some sort of matrix, likely a QS or a "regular matrix." They didn't really have to do much of anything to use this system. It would "fake" 4 channels with stereo recordings. Most music was only available in stereo at the time.

In the mid-1980's, back in the days of carts, I took a QS quadraphonic album version of Steely Dan's "Do It Again" and carted it up to use on the air. Turns out, if you were listening to the FM station in mono (a record rep would listen to our station on the clock radio at this desk,) you couldn't near the vocals at all!

 

[wfilwibg]

I too remember WYSP in quad. There were many 4 channel receivers and SQ decoders available in the early 70's. I could not afford one at the time.

 

[Steve Green NEPA]

My posting resume' has been littered with inaccuracies, myths (rural and urban ones) and general memory loss. But I rarely skip an opportunity to ask a question.

So here's another one :

Is it true that an FM station that broadcasts in mono gets out farther than the same station does in stereo?

If so, would an FM station that broadcasts in quad be compromising its signal even moreso?

 

[kevtronics]

I think all of the FM Quad stations were using some sort of matrix, likely a QS or a "regular matrix."

No, there was a discrete 4-channel FM quadraphonic system, called Quadracast, based on the CD-4 Quadradisc system used on LP records. It used an add-on box to decode the rear-channel subcarrier, as showed in a web page I linked to above.

 

[TheBigA]

But as someone said earlier, the fact that there were so many competing systems, and it was so complicated, is in part why it failed.

Today, people are quite satisfied with earbuds.

 

[Miguelito]

Today, people are quite satisfied with earbuds.

This made me think, 'For quad to work today, we'd all need two extra ears.' Worth a giggle.

 

[lawman]

My posting resume' has been littered with inaccuracies, myths (rural and urban ones) and general memory loss. But I rarely skip an opportunity to ask a question.

So here's another one :

Is it true that an FM station that broadcasts in mono gets out farther than the same station does in stereo?

If so, would an FM station that broadcasts in quad be compromising its signal even moreso?

Now that makes me think of a question, do HD subs decrease the range of a normal FM operation, the more subs the shrinkage or distortion in coverage...

 

[JBraddock]

Quad was the first step toward today's multi-channel home theater systems. A bit ahead of its time. The multiple LP playback systems, not being able to adapt quad to the cassette format and the waning of the 8 track format despite quad capability laid quad to rest before it could catch on in the market. The advance of home video systems over the next decade reignited interest in multi-channel sound. Car audio systems today make use of surround channel processing, albeit using the existing stereo source material.

 

[kevtronics]

There were, in fact, quadraphonic cassettes. But by the time cassettes began outselling 8-tracks, the quad fad had pretty much passed.

It saw a brief revival in the early '90s as "QSound", which was based on the same principles as matrixed quad but was only marketed as a "3D Stereo" system, not requiring a special decoder or rear channel speakers. But QSound will actually decode rear channel audio when played through a QS quad or Dolby Pro Logic II decoder. Its most famous use was on Madonna's "Immaculate Collection" album.

 

[Miguelito]

It saw a brief revival in the early '90s as "QSound", which was based on the same principles as matrixed quad but was only marketed as a "3D Stereo" system, not requiring a special decoder or rear channel speakers. But QSound will actually decode rear channel audio when played through a QS quad or Dolby Pro Logic II decoder. Its most famous use was on Madonna's "Immaculate Collection" album.

It was used on a bunch of tracks on Paula Abdul's 1991 Spellbound LP as well. I still don't understand how it works but it sounds absolutely creepy (in a funky way). The song is coming from your speakers like every other song, but suddenly some elements sound like they're coming from satellite speakers that are on either side of your head!

 

[JBraddock]

There were, in fact, quadraphonic cassettes. But by the time cassettes began outselling 8-tracks, the quad fad had pretty much passed.

Interesting. I had heard of prototype quad cassette efforts that failed to make it to market, but I'd never seen any tapes. Indeed, it doesn't appear that any quad cassette decks were produced beyond prototypes. There is some talk on the site I think you got the image from that JVC produced an eight-channel cassette deck for quad, but I can't find much info on it. I seem to recall that there were compatibility issues between quad cassette prototype units and stereo players.

At any rate, you can find quad 8-track tapes and players on Ebay, but no quad cassette equipment, so the format doesn't appear to have made any penetration in the marketplace.

 

[TheBigA]

It's interesting to me that an entire hobby of high fidelity audio, supported by record labels, retail, and media, has basically disappeared.

 

[lawman]

This is my Panasonic 4 channel I was talking about, minus the average 2 speaker woofer tweeter system in woodgrain cabinent,,