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Audio: WNBC "Time Machine" - October 7, 1987

Still, you've gotta admit, there's something about hearing "Bend Me Shape Me" in that spectrum...
 
You should have heard The Time Machine on a wide-band AM Stereo radio!! Holy crap was it good with the KAHN system. Had the freakin' FCC done what they SHOULD have, and not let the "industry" decide which system got the nod (like they did with FM stereo and Color TV) AM radio MIGHT have had another good 10 years or more of playing music in MANY markets including NYC.

But the Motorola system won out for reasons that are out of my memory bank. I am sure I could Google it...but I'm too lazy at the moment. In fact, the airchecks of MINE (that I never even knew about until all of us did on www.reelradio.com) were recorded onto a 6 hour HIFI VHS machine (with a slight wobble every second or so to the trained ear) from a WIDEBAND AM radio. Not sure if it was a Sony AM Stereo Walkman, but I heard one of THOSE on 660 one night and almost wet my pants. It was VERY clean with a high end and a bottom that was VERY close to FM!! I'm not kidding.

Nowadays with all the external NOISE on the AM band, plus AM radio manufacturers making the tuners sound about as good as a telephone or worse, AND the fact that AM broadcasters...in fact ALL broadcasters ALLOWED that to happen is just short of ignorance. There has been NO incentive to FIX AM radio...for over 20 years now. In fact, I read Radio-World enough to know that AM is clipped at about 5 whatever now. So there is NO high end left! Soon, all that will be listening to AM will be the people who buy the time for brokered programs...naw...even THEY won't listen...UNLESS there is compelling programming for a local area. Naw...that went out with the LP and the 45.

What a waste of bandwidth now. I agree with one proposal to abolish MOST of the lower power AM stations, and migrate them to a lower FM band and only let the BIG stations...the 50K stations remain on the air...they should boost their power to 100KW and be done with it. Just ONE station per frequency…the same ones that were given Clear Channel clearance years ago. Drop ALL of the others. Unless you're listening to a news or talk or sports station, how many of you STILL listen to an AM station for music? Not many. Ok...some do for specialty programming...but let's be realistic.

AND I LOVE AM RADIO...but let's face it...the challenges are becoming too much to overcome. Good luck to the few who DO well...like some major market legends... Small town AM's may still do well in SOME places not served by FM service, but many are just disappearing. How sad. But ya know, I bet someone has the guts to do it right even NOW. If I had the $$ I'd be nutty enough to want to try it. Just GIVE the people what they want...and what they can't find on ANY other platform...including FM, Satellite, Internet-only stations.

And that is TOTAL LOCAL. Period. But again...the costs of doing this may be just too high to justify it with bankers who run the biz now.

I'd love to read some reasoned discourse on this discussion.

BE BIG!
Jay
 
bigjay said:
You should have heard The Time Machine on a wide-band AM Stereo radio!! Holy crap was it good with the KAHN system. Had the freakin' FCC done what they SHOULD have, and not let the "industry" decide which system got the nod (like they did with FM stereo and Color TV) AM radio MIGHT have had another good 10 years or more of playing music in MANY markets including NYC.

But the Motorola system won out for reasons that are out of my memory bank. I am sure I could Google it...but I'm too lazy at the moment. In fact, the airchecks of MINE (that I never even knew about until all of us did on www.reelradio.com) were recorded onto a 6 hour HIFI VHS machine (with a slight wobble every second or so to the trained ear) from a WIDEBAND AM radio. Not sure if it was a Sony AM Stereo Walkman, but I heard one of THOSE on 660 one night and almost wet my pants. It was VERY clean with a high end and a bottom that was VERY close to FM!! I'm not kidding.

Nowadays with all the external NOISE on the AM band, plus AM radio manufacturers making the tuners sound about as good as a telephone or worse, AND the fact that AM broadcasters...in fact ALL broadcasters ALLOWED that to happen is just short of ignorance. There has been NO incentive to FIX AM radio...for over 20 years now. In fact, I read Radio-World enough to know that AM is clipped at about 5 whatever now. So there is NO high end left! Soon, all that will be listening to AM will be the people who buy the time for brokered programs...naw...even THEY won't listen...UNLESS there is compelling programming for a local area. Naw...that went out with the LP and the 45.

What a waste of bandwidth now. I agree with one proposal to abolish MOST of the lower power AM stations, and migrate them to a lower FM band and only let the BIG stations...the 50K stations remain on the air...they should boost their power to 100KW and be done with it. Just ONE station per frequency…the same ones that were given Clear Channel clearance years ago. Drop ALL of the others. Unless you're listening to a news or talk or sports station, how many of you STILL listen to an AM station for music? Not many. Ok...some do for specialty programming...but let's be realistic.

AND I LOVE AM RADIO...but let's face it...the challenges are becoming too much to overcome. Good luck to the few who DO well...like some major market legends... Small town AM's may still do well in SOME places not served by FM service, but many are just disappearing. How sad. But ya know, I bet someone has the guts to do it right even NOW. If I had the $$ I'd be nutty enough to want to try it. Just GIVE the people what they want...and what they can't find on ANY other platform...including FM, Satellite, Internet-only stations.

And that is TOTAL LOCAL. Period. But again...the costs of doing this may be just too high to justify it with bankers who run the biz now.

I'd love to read some reasoned discourse on this discussion.

BE BIG!
Jay
Click to expand...

Jay, the AM Stereo system to which you are refering is - was - the Kahn system. I bought an '87 Toyota with a Fujitsu 10 radio with the C-Quam mode. When I tuned to WNNBC, it would pop in and out of stereo. That prompted me to call Leonard Kahn and ask how to modify the radio to decode it. For $25 he sent me "The Secret of AM Stereo."

Once I installed it, I was sold on the Kahn system and knew it was the way to go. 1560 was WQXR during that time. Riding around Toms River I listened to both 660 and 1560 in stereo. 1010 and 1310 were using C-Quam and was out of stereo more than it was in. Any static would release the pilot and the pulse count would reset. Touch the horn and the same thing. It wasn't signal strength. Quite the contrary, I had 101% stereo coverage with Kahn. I had approx. 75% coverage with C-quam.

It was politics pure and simple. It was a partnership between the FCC and Motorola.

The initials were P & D. I don't remember which initial was the FCC Commish.

I had a cassette recorder in my car and still have A/B airchecks. Yes! With the "Time Machine" in wideband AM stereo recorded from riding around Seaside.

Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!
 
bigjay said:
You should have heard The Time Machine on a wide-band AM Stereo radio!! Holy crap was it good with the KAHN system. Had the freakin' FCC done what they SHOULD have, and not let the "industry" decide which system got the nod (like they did with FM stereo and Color TV) AM radio MIGHT have had another good 10 years or more of playing music in MANY markets including NYC.

But the Motorola system won out for reasons that are out of my memory bank. I am sure I could Google it...but I'm too lazy at the moment. In fact, the airchecks of MINE (that I never even knew about until all of us did on www.reelradio.com) were recorded onto a 6 hour HIFI VHS machine (with a slight wobble every second or so to the trained ear) from a WIDEBAND AM radio. Not sure if it was a Sony AM Stereo Walkman, but I heard one of THOSE on 660 one night and almost wet my pants. It was VERY clean with a high end and a bottom that was VERY close to FM!! I'm not kidding.

Nowadays with all the external NOISE on the AM band, plus AM radio manufacturers making the tuners sound about as good as a telephone or worse, AND the fact that AM broadcasters...in fact ALL broadcasters ALLOWED that to happen is just short of ignorance. There has been NO incentive to FIX AM radio...for over 20 years now. In fact, I read Radio-World enough to know that AM is clipped at about 5 whatever now. So there is NO high end left! Soon, all that will be listening to AM will be the people who buy the time for brokered programs...naw...even THEY won't listen...UNLESS there is compelling programming for a local area. Naw...that went out with the LP and the 45.

What a waste of bandwidth now. I agree with one proposal to abolish MOST of the lower power AM stations, and migrate them to a lower FM band and only let the BIG stations...the 50K stations remain on the air...they should boost their power to 100KW and be done with it. Just ONE station per frequency…the same ones that were given Clear Channel clearance years ago. Drop ALL of the others. Unless you're listening to a news or talk or sports station, how many of you STILL listen to an AM station for music? Not many. Ok...some do for specialty programming...but let's be realistic.

AND I LOVE AM RADIO...but let's face it...the challenges are becoming too much to overcome. Good luck to the few who DO well...like some major market legends... Small town AM's may still do well in SOME places not served by FM service, but many are just disappearing. How sad. But ya know, I bet someone has the guts to do it right even NOW. If I had the $$ I'd be nutty enough to want to try it. Just GIVE the people what they want...and what they can't find on ANY other platform...including FM, Satellite, Internet-only stations.

And that is TOTAL LOCAL. Period. But again...the costs of doing this may be just too high to justify it with bankers who run the biz now.

I'd love to read some reasoned discourse on this discussion.

BE BIG!
Jay
Click to expand...

You couldn't be more correct, Jay. I love AM radio, too, although it has become tedious to listen to with the POTS line frequency response imposed nowadays, along with the annoying IBOC hiss on those stations so equipped. Thank you, WABC, for turning that garbage technology off! WOR, would you please turn it off...please? It rarely locks, just south of Toms River, and on an analog radio the hiss is almost unbearable.

I had one of the Realistic AM stereo tuners (hell, I STILL have it!) back when WNNNBC did music, and it sounded respectably good 3 miles from Center City Philadelphia. I don't use that tuner any longer, because there is no C-QUAM programming available to me. My Dodge Caravan has a C-QUAM tuner, and when I'm near New Brunswick, 1450 WCTC sounds great on it!

Local works, everytime. Superserve your (small) community, and you can survive, even thrive, on AM. The example that always comes to mind in this vein is WSBS, Great Barrington, Mass. Live, local, and all about the Berkshires! I vacation in that area in summer, and always listen to WSBS while there. And, while they now have an FM translator, they did this for years as a daytimer!

AM went to hell for several reasons. To my way of thinking, the biggest was the FCC's cutting back of the dominant I-A clears back in the Eighties, followed by all the flea power nighttime authorizations granted former daytimers. You can ice that cake with IBOC. A damned shame.
 
Jay... always great to hear you on CBS FM!!!! You belong there and fit right in!
 
This is good stuff. If only radio still sounded this good! I used to DX WNBC and often heard "Time Machine".
 
Mike, I'm honored that you liked what you heard back in '87 & '88. We had a blast putting The Time Machine together, and it was even more fun DOING it. I always sensed that we had a very good thing going there, but GE had other plans for radio...NONE.

Thanks Don for GETTING that radio MUST be live and local to survive, but some comanies just don't get it.

And thanks to BabyDJ for the kudos about CBS-FM. Another all-out FUN FEST for me to do.

BE BIG!
Jay
 
Jay, would you consider putting together a "Time Machine" syndicated program, or even a podcast?
 
I do have something up my sleeve...but to play MUSIC on something like that would cost a fortune for ME as a standalone operation. But to TALK about that stuff, and radio itself would be cool. Hmmm....
BE BIG!
Jay
 
Perhaps...or something like it... I think there might be a market for it. We'll see. I'm working on a few things.
BE BIG! Jay
 
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