-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
KYW Ends the Teletype Sound
- Thread starter atthestars
- Start date
I agree they want to make it sound fresher. But Philadelphians are stubborn, and don't like change that much. I figured KYW removing the teletype would be akin to when Action News re-recorded their theme.
About. Flipping. Time.
You would think so but Philly is weird about these things. As mentioned, ABC channel 6 news who got blasted big time when tried to do away with their very very old sounding opening theme song, theme songs that nobody uses any more.
Philly really takes to certain out-dated elements in their media that they just don't want to let go of.
In the day where more and more things are losing their local flavor I kind of like those little things that scream "Philly". I'm sure that there will be some listeners who can't put their finger on just what it is but their KYW doesn't sound the same. The unique nature of this market makes these decisions must more difficult than they usually are.
And how many people under 45 to 50 have ever seen a teletype, other than, perhaps, viewing an old movie?
I don't recall the last time I saw a teletype in a radio station. By the 90's, pretty much gone with alternate delivery and print-out methods.
I first subscribed to a news service in the late 60's and got FrancePress to install a teletype machine, along with a big rack-mount shortwave receiver and an antenna on the office roof. Most of the time, one of the several frequencies was usable. But there were periods of hours and even a day when there was no connection. News stopped. Fortunately we had an agreement with a newspaper and they had two other news services; Reuters was generally working when AFP was not.
The sound of a teletype brings back, mostly, memories of an annoying technology and late night calls asking me to come and try to get the thing working before the breakfast shift newscasts.
Somehow I knew that Action News theme thing would come up. From, what, a quarter century ago now? Sure, they even made light of it on the 50th anniversary special, but come on...people hold on harder to these one-time things and make a bigger deal than they warrant. And beyond the theme, the rest of the show has long since evolved. Magnetic weather maps long gone.
I would sincerely suggest as well that a background noise is different than a program open, and the reaction to the latter doesn’t mean the former is sacrosanct.
I would sincerely suggest as well that a background noise is different than a program open, and the reaction to the latter doesn’t mean the former is sacrosanct.
The first step was dot-matrix. They were a lot quieter. But yes by the early 90s, the "wire" was incorporated in the desktop. The popular service I think was called Basys. If you needed to print the news copy, it was printed at the laser printer with your script.
One of the worst radio newcomer tasks was changing the ribbon on the teletype. The ribbons all seemed to be over saturated and messy, and the end result was a long, detergent based hand wash in the restroom.
My ship had 3 ASR-33's in a room about as large as a coat closet. Not only were they a pistol to work on but the noise was incredible. No wonder my hearing is shot after listening to these for 3 years running. Our ribbons came with latex gloves to wear while changing. Only thing is.....you can't really use two hands on a ribbon while the ship is pitching up and down left and right.
Now that is a frightening idea!
G
Groove1670
Guest
I'm 54 and never used a teletype. I remember one collecting dust in the engineer room. We used the AP dot matrix printers.
I'm 65. My first newspaper, which I joined in 1977, had a clattering teletype but it was strictly a backup to a newly installed Compugraphic monster in back. We were on the limited AP "slow wire," and this thing could store about 100 wire stories at a time before it would beep for someone to start killing files. The next paper I went to, in 1981, had retired its teletype a couple of years previous. It would be interesting to know what and where the last newspaper (or radio station, for that matter) was to keep its teletype running.
Way, WAY back in the late 60's through the 70's, AP and UPI provided teletype machines to radio and television stations. Those machines operated at a speed of 52 baud as I recall. The speed was limited, not by the mechanical teletype machine, but by the telephone lines which provided the "current loop" which fed the machines. High capacitance in the phone lines was the limiting factor. All radio and television stations in the same area were fed by the same loop. All machines in the loop were in series so each one received the same amount of current.
Many stations also had a weather wire teletype which operated at a slightly faster, 72 baud, speed.
In the 70's the news services abandoned the d.c. series loop and started using Frequency-Shift Keying with an FSK receiver at the receiving end to feed the teletype.
As a side note, these machines were workhorses. I can remember only one or two machine breakdowns. All of these machines smelled like machine oil.
Changing the ribbon was a nasty mess. Unless you wore Playtex gloves, you'd get purple or black ink all over your fingers ... and it didn't wash off easily.
Many stations also had a weather wire teletype which operated at a slightly faster, 72 baud, speed.
In the 70's the news services abandoned the d.c. series loop and started using Frequency-Shift Keying with an FSK receiver at the receiving end to feed the teletype.
As a side note, these machines were workhorses. I can remember only one or two machine breakdowns. All of these machines smelled like machine oil.
Changing the ribbon was a nasty mess. Unless you wore Playtex gloves, you'd get purple or black ink all over your fingers ... and it didn't wash off easily.
For those that miss it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwblSeIdi0s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwblSeIdi0s
That makes me grateful for the lightning-fast, 110-baud teletype I was privileged to use back in the '70s!
That makes me grateful for the lightning-fast, 110-baud teletype I was privileged to use back in the '70s!
IGM automation systems used a 110 baud teletype writer/reader to encode information on commercial carts.
- Status