Did you ever work at a station...

[MrJohn]

...that allowed smoking inside the studio?

If it wasn't allowed, did people do it anyway?

 

[michael hagerty]

...that allowed smoking inside the studio?

If it wasn't allowed, did people do it anyway?

Yes. In fact, it was allowed in every studio I worked in during my first round in radio (1971-1981). By the time I came back from my 30-year-detour in TV news, no.

 

[davect]

Yup!

 

[davideduardo]

Many of us for years thought that microphone screens had a natural flat bronze-like finish. Actually, they were chrome and smoking discolored them.

 

[frankberry]

Many thought the Shure SM5B windscreens were brown. They were gray.

 

[Mediafrog+]

Decades ago smoking was quite common in TV station control rooms. Nothing unusual to see the producer and director puffing away during newscasts and other live programming. Technical directors that smoked had to be careful not to drop ashes on the video switcher. That sort of behavior pretty much disappeared by the late 1980’s as attitudes against smoking became stronger and station management cracked down.

Go back to the 1950s and 60s and you found on-air talent smoking on camera, even on national shows. Edward R. Murrow was one such example, and of course Johnny Carson and his guests went through a zillion packs in that era. Different times.

 

[Deleted User]

Up until the early 80's smoking, including pot at many college stations was the norm

It caused all sorts of fun problems like gumming up the potentiometers , but having a 1/4 inch of nicotine on every surface, burn marks on the console table, discolored mic screens, and full ash trays was just a normal studio experience. And album sleeves were great for getting the sticks, stems , and seeds out of your pot.. and the razor blades from the editing area ...well they had other uses too

 

[b-turner]

Every place I worked until July 1993 allowed smoking not only on the on air side but office side of the building. A new job in 1993 did not allow inside smoking but arranged a nice covered area with places to put cigarette butts just off from the front porch. Even at that station only one or two did not smoke. Back in those days of radio you were the odd man out if you didn't smoke. In fact, at my first fulltime gig, I was the only person except for the traffic person that did not smoke. Every staff member, including sales, office and jock smoked. This included the 16 year old high schooler with a weekend shift. As a matter of fact, I picked up smoking again after about a month there.

 

[davideduardo]

and the razor blades from the editing area ...well they had other uses too

A smart manage knew something was going on that warranted night and weekend unannounced visits when editing single-edge blades were reordered after just three months.

 

[semoochie]

After 12 years of school, where we were told we weren't allowed to chew gum, I began college and was dumbfounded that not only could you chew gum but smoking in class was perfectly acceptable!

 

[Mikey Radio]

Back in those days of radio you were the odd man out if you didn't smoke. In fact, at my first fulltime gig, I was the only person except for the traffic person that did not smoke. Every staff member, including sales, office and jock smoked. This included the 16 year old high schooler with a weekend shift. As a matter of fact, I picked up smoking again after about a month there.

At one of my first stations, 4 or 5 of the jocks smoked. One had good pipes and was convinced that smoking made him sound even better. A few of the guys there with lighter voices were convinced that smoking made them sound better on the air and liked the "raspiness" that it added. I remember working overnights one weekend, a 2 hour block of that shift was pre-recorded programming on vynil with local inserts every 15 minutes. I got bored and decided to clean the board in the production studio - Basically just removing the old, crappy looking labels, spraying 409 or Windex on a paper towel and cleaning the gunk off all the exterior surfaces and then re-labeling. It ended up taking me a few hours and the amount of gunk and brown/grey discoloration on all the paper towels I'd used was impressive! Then again, before I cleaned it up, it'd probably been years since it'd been done.

 

[tbolt909]

Many thought the Shure SM5B windscreens were brown. They were gray.

It was common to find cigarette ashes on the microphone and the control board. TV and Radio hosts were often seen smoking on the air. Nothing unusual about it in that era...

 

[MrJohn]

Thanks for the interesting responses. I know that smoking was an "everywhere" thing decades ago, but these equipment horror stories are exactly the reason why I assumed it would have been banned in-studio.

 

[Mikey Radio]

Thanks for the interesting responses. I know that smoking was an "everywhere" thing decades ago, but these equipment horror stories are exactly the reason why I assumed it would have been banned in-studio.

Since, exactly as you say, smoking really was "everywhere", it may have been considered an oddity back then to ban it, and jocks may have put up a fight had they tried to prohibit smoking in the studios - Especially since, as someone correctly stated earlier in this thread, many employees at many stations - airstaff, engineering, clerical, managerial, executive - were all puffing away inside the facility.

It's also worth noting that, up through the late 1980s, it was common for even smaller mom and pop AM/FM stations to have a full-time engineer on staff, so if pots were getting scratchy from the smoke and tar or equipment was malfunctioning in any way because of it, there was usually someone on-site to deal with it relatively quickly...While they smoked when making the repair, lol.

 

[fybush]

I still cringe thinking about the Neumann U87s that were trashed at WBZ in the mid-90s because all those years of nicotine buildup had rendered them junk.

(I still wish I'd salvaged one at least to clean up and use as a prop, but they were probably beyond even that.)

The sports "office" in particular was a glorified closet that was always bathed in a smoke haze.

I do not miss that aspect of the era!

 

[Kent]

...that allowed smoking inside the studio?

I've never personally worked at one, but I've worked at a couple stations that hired people from KRLI/KMZU. I was told it was permitted there, at least as recently as 2007. I don't know if it was expressly permitted, or if they just looked the other way when people did it.

While it was never allowed anywhere I've worked, I have worked for a few that had old studio equipment, and I have seen the brown mics that others have mentioned.