brief history of delayed programming

[alok]

story on this practice in recent Radioworld magazine, (12/4/24) edition,

A Brief History of Delayed Programming - Radio World

 

[FreddyE1977]

story on this practice in recent Radioworld magazine, (12/4/24) edition,

A Brief History of Delayed Programming - Radio World

Fascinating history there on Dr. Brinkley and XER. By strict reading of that law it would appear to have prohibited commercial record companies from exporting any of their product for foreign broadcast. Brinkley was nearly elected Governor of Kansas in 1930, garnering 183,000 votes while running as an independent. His plan was to fire the members of the Kansas Medical Board and appoint his own, who would of course reinstate his medical license which had been revoked.

The former regulation which persisted into the late 70's that you had to hold an FCC license to touch anything in the studio is another example of a legal tack in the road thrown at an individual. It was to stop Father Charles Coughlin, a Nazi-sympathizing Catholic priest with a huge radio audience who led a radical political movement in the 1930's. So there is a long history of legal gymnastics being deployed to disrupt charlatans. (One could argue that Coughlin was the first victim of Cancel Culture as eventually he was even banned from sending his material through the US Mail).

Both Brinkley and Coughlin would make fascinating subjects for biopics.

 

[TheBigA]

Both Brinkley and Coughlin would make fascinating subjects for biopics.

Rachel Maddow covered Coughlin in one of her podcasts. He's an interesting character, and many parallels to what's happening today:

Episode 2: The Brooklyn Boys

Father Charles E. Coughlin calls for armed Americans to create a militia. Their plot to overthrow the U.S. government and democracy questions if the country can handle that kind of homegrown threat.

www.msnbc.com

Rachel Maddow’s new book examines American fascism in the WWII era and the fight against it

The conventional story of World War II in the United States is the one about how the country, shrugging off the hardships brought on by the Great Depression, rolled up its sleeves to defeat the fascist forces of Nazi Germany and Japan and make the...

www.recorder.com

Brinkley's border radio station was included in the Ken Burns documentary on Country Music.

XER Border Blaster

Radio Station XER, King of Border Blasters

www.theradiohistorian.org

 

[davideduardo]

The former regulation which persisted into the late 70's that you had to hold an FCC license to touch anything in the studio is another example of a legal tack in the road thrown at an individual.

There was no such regulation, ever. You had to have some kind of license to operate a transmitter, whether directly or by remote control. But a "board op" or a combo announcer who ran their own board or even a union member operator did not need a license unless they exercised some control of RF-Producing transmission gear, whether to just take readings or to perform adjustments, maintenance or even just to turn such gear on or off.

I began running the board at both WJMO and WCUY in Cleveland in 1958/59 at age 13 with no license. Once the higher-ups realized that I would work for free or for minimum wage, they got me to apply for a third class FCC license which was a "if you can sign your name you get one" procedure. Then I could turn the transmitters on and off and take readings, which I did.

But to run the board for the Sunday morning ethnic shows in Italian, Greek, Polish, Hungarian and several other languages I did not need a license... just the ability to communicate with mostly non-English speakers with hand signals and little cards I made showing 1, 2, 3 and 5 minutes left!

 

[alok]

If any of you can get a copy of Border Radio, it is a great read.
It was published originally in 1987.
There is now a 2002 revised edition.

Border Radio

 

[Radio Bob]

There was no such regulation, ever. You had to have some kind of license to operate a transmitter, whether directly or by remote control. But a "board op" or a combo announcer who ran their own board or even a union member operator did not need a license unless they exercised some control of RF-Producing transmission gear, whether to just take readings or to perform adjustments, maintenance or even just to turn such gear on or off.

I began running the board at both WJMO and WCUY in Cleveland in 1958/59 at age 13 with no license. Once the higher-ups realized that I would work for free or for minimum wage, they got me to apply for a third class FCC license which was a "if you can sign your name you get one" procedure. Then I could turn the transmitters on and off and take readings, which I did.

But to run the board for the Sunday morning ethnic shows in Italian, Greek, Polish, Hungarian and several other languages I did not need a license... just the ability to communicate with mostly non-English speakers with hand signals and little cards I made showing 1, 2, 3 and 5 minutes left!

I believe you could operate a nondirectional AM transmitter with a third class but a directional am and any FM over 10kw had to have a first class license. back then. WJMO was a 250 watts nondirectional around 1959. Later 1kw day/250 night and finally 1kw day and night. I started on WLEC 1450 in Sandusky Ohio nondirectional 1kw/250 with a third later got a first and became the chief at WLRO in Lorain Ohio.

 

[davideduardo]

I believe you could operate a nondirectional AM transmitter with a third class but a directional am and any FM over 10kw had to have a first class license. back then. WJMO was a 250 watts nondirectional around 1959. Later 1kw day/250 night and finally 1kw day and night. I started on WLEC 1450 in Sandusky Ohio nondirectional 1kw/250 with a third later got a first and became the chief at WLRO in Lorain Ohio.

Directional AMs required a First, but that was eliminated before 1975. In that year, I rebuilt the DA for WQII in San Juan (1140, 10 kw, DA-1, four towers) and applied for remote control operation just with Third Ticket people. I was the only one on staff with a 1st after that.

We had a San Juan COL 50 kw V&H FM. WSRA (Now WZNT) and it was operated with 3rd Class licenses since prior to my arrival there.

Before that, our FM in Cleveland Heights was 27 kw and I could do the logs going back to 1959 with just a 3rd.

 

[Radio Bob]

Directional AMs required a First, but that was eliminated before 1975. In that year, I rebuilt the DA for WQII in San Juan (1140, 10 kw, DA-1, four towers) and applied for remote control operation just with Third Ticket people. I was the only one on staff with a 1st after that.

We had a San Juan COL 50 kw V&H FM. WSRA (Now WZNT) and it was operated with 3rd Class licenses since prior to my arrival there.

Before that, our FM in Cleveland Heights was 27 kw and I could do the logs going back to 1959 with just a 3rd.

I remember the am 1490. Wasn't the tower atop a building in Cleveland heights? I don't remember if I saw an fm antenna on it though.