For the time, WNAP had noticeably better sound quality than competing stations (they seemed to compress sounds that are much more noticeable when multipath distortion is also present). What processing did they use (in detail if possible) and what might I use to duplicate it today (including emulating Dolby, compression, and echo effect). I recall the echo effect as being very "mellow" and "airy" not "boxy" like some echo characteristics that I hear on some stations today (e.g. bloomberg radio). Also, did they always use stereo (widely separated) voice mics or was that only occasional?
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Duplicate WNAP's Sound of the Late 70's
- Thread starter dfwrunner
- Start date
Hope someone is around that was there at the time. I didn't get my hands on their air chain until the mid 90's & by then, it was a barefoot Optimod 8200...
It was a 'custom sound'... Loved how "Moto" (Chris) came across the mic and chain.. Magic on FM in those early days of hit showing up live jocked on that band...
B
barnyard
Guest
It changed over time, but the classic chain in the mid 70's would have been an Audimax / Volumax. Later on custom boxes built by Steve Hnat. Reverb was a pair of Fairchild spring units, identical to those used on Ten-seven-oh. Mics were by Sennheiser - 421's I think - Great days for radio!
I recall Harris MSP 90's in the chain. Red light gate, green light ungated processing. There may ahve been a hint of reverb in the chain. The hines gear wasn't in the chain then. They used the harris stereo generator. The audimax volumax was still in Master Control (Heaven opens and the light shines down) but wasn't moving any meters. Circa 1981.
Fairbanks sister station KVIL in Dallas sounded almost identical to NAP back then. Very compressed, a touch of fairchild reverb and in your face. Interesting because KVIL was a female oriented station. They, like NAP sure stuck out on the dial. A friend who would know says KVIL was audimax/volumax with some tweaking done by then CE Jerry Klabunde.
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Brickyard400
Guest
Chief Engineer Mike Russell didn't like Optimods. The processing was hand built by Fairbanks Director of Engineering, Steve Hnat. He later released the same thing as the Hnat-Hindes Tri-Maze. They ran 3 seperate reverb units. One on the mic, one in production when they carted up the music, and one unit on the entire chain. (Yes, amazingly they were all on cart, and it sounded great) This all fed a Harris stereo generator, a Moseley composite STL and a BE FM-30 exciter. They ran Harris FM-20H3 transmitters, I believe they had 2 identical ones in a main -aux configuration.
There was another secret little piece of equipment out at the transmitter that gave the station that big, in your face-sound. It was a Sta-Max composite clipper. It made the modulation meter sit pegged at 100% and gave the station a huge wallop. These clipper units were ruled illegal by the FCC in about mid-80s, and when Mike put in an FCC approved clipper, the station never sounded near as good. Steve Hnat passed away several years ago, and so did Mike Russell. Very sad as these were two incredable engineers who understood the programming guys.
There was another secret little piece of equipment out at the transmitter that gave the station that big, in your face-sound. It was a Sta-Max composite clipper. It made the modulation meter sit pegged at 100% and gave the station a huge wallop. These clipper units were ruled illegal by the FCC in about mid-80s, and when Mike put in an FCC approved clipper, the station never sounded near as good. Steve Hnat passed away several years ago, and so did Mike Russell. Very sad as these were two incredable engineers who understood the programming guys.
WNAP played vinyl in their glory days. The quality of any station's sound is really relative to whatever their competition is doing. If cross town stations were all running junk audio, a decent chain on WNAP would sound really good compared to them without being anything really outstanding.
bigtime said:
True, but it was indeed exceptional, better than anything I hear today (Dallas, LA, Indy, Louisville). They really worked at it. Most CDs while noise free, are very often not of high sonic quality in terms of equalization, channel separation (transcribed analog recordings), etc. varies greatly in quality by manufacturer, by "producer"...some CDs are just sonically crap. And many radio stations due little processing under the false impression that CDs don't need any processing...they very much do.
J
jimbo700
Guest
> And many radio stations due little processing under the false impression
> that CDs don't need any processing...they very much do.
They may very well need processing but I'm not sure what to do with them. Especially CHR, Urban and Modern Rock and even Country.
If you RIP a copy of Kings of Leon's "Use Somebody" you will see it has already been squished down to where there are no peaks and valleys when you view the wave in Adobe or Pro Tools.
This is not a rarity. Half of the music released (my estimate, not an industry, scientific sample) is dynamically squeezed to the point of nausea.
And I'm an old school AM jock who used to love to see Volumax and Audimax keep those VU meters sitting right at 100%.
I have airchecks of the fast TM shotgun (1973) into Roberta Flack's "First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" and the VU meters would stay parked at 100%.
Yet it took today's record engineers to finally get it through my head that Bob Orban is right... too much of a good thing is fatiguing.
> that CDs don't need any processing...they very much do.
They may very well need processing but I'm not sure what to do with them. Especially CHR, Urban and Modern Rock and even Country.
If you RIP a copy of Kings of Leon's "Use Somebody" you will see it has already been squished down to where there are no peaks and valleys when you view the wave in Adobe or Pro Tools.
This is not a rarity. Half of the music released (my estimate, not an industry, scientific sample) is dynamically squeezed to the point of nausea.
And I'm an old school AM jock who used to love to see Volumax and Audimax keep those VU meters sitting right at 100%.
I have airchecks of the fast TM shotgun (1973) into Roberta Flack's "First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" and the VU meters would stay parked at 100%.
Yet it took today's record engineers to finally get it through my head that Bob Orban is right... too much of a good thing is fatiguing.
We played carts in 1980. Rotten old ITC 3 stack carts that from time to time be stopped mid play placed in the older gates cart and restarted while the heads were cleaned. Depended on the mood of the engineer.
Mirrored ceiling, executive rotary pot console, Moto's info chalkboard, pictures of all the sleazy show us your boobs chicks at the track, Kevin ONeal threatening to shoot someone if they didn't let him in the damn building, Eric Edwards in the bomb shelter on the BMX board, crack whores in the parking lot, the roach coach is here loudly over the PA through the building, "all Bob Richards can do is read the newspaper", "I'm Fred Heckmannnnn".
It wasn't a mythiocal place but it can't be duplicated. By this time the new composite clipper was in play, 4 new radio stations were competing on the FM dial and WNAP became format of the month. We had to read Cosmo to get in touch with our listeners. Every station was as loud as every other station.
The transmitters had been moved to post road where they ran with no air conditioning until recently. 1968 vintage Green 20 KW boxes with TE1 exciter. The exciters had long ago been disconnected. Some fun to find them both on at once. Always noticed a whine on 465. Thye had just enough different charachter that the whine didn't go a long distance.
We have so many FMs now that there may never be a time when we get that unique experience.
Mirrored ceiling, executive rotary pot console, Moto's info chalkboard, pictures of all the sleazy show us your boobs chicks at the track, Kevin ONeal threatening to shoot someone if they didn't let him in the damn building, Eric Edwards in the bomb shelter on the BMX board, crack whores in the parking lot, the roach coach is here loudly over the PA through the building, "all Bob Richards can do is read the newspaper", "I'm Fred Heckmannnnn".
It wasn't a mythiocal place but it can't be duplicated. By this time the new composite clipper was in play, 4 new radio stations were competing on the FM dial and WNAP became format of the month. We had to read Cosmo to get in touch with our listeners. Every station was as loud as every other station.
The transmitters had been moved to post road where they ran with no air conditioning until recently. 1968 vintage Green 20 KW boxes with TE1 exciter. The exciters had long ago been disconnected. Some fun to find them both on at once. Always noticed a whine on 465. Thye had just enough different charachter that the whine didn't go a long distance.
We have so many FMs now that there may never be a time when we get that unique experience.
What a wonderful display of words. I remember a tour with "Mr. Newspaper Reader"... I remember the evil rantings and warnings of the long respected PD on 'The Creek' who warned of the loose crew 'gone wild' at Fairbanks... "But, Uncle Bill? We want to go back to Indiana... It may not be Terry-Hut, but it is on Indiana's Meridian.... Then add "Shirk's BALLS in red, white and blue...Who's with your WIFE? and all the fun Indy radio held for traveling youth coming into to town for events and family biz..... You were blessed...
Mike Russel was indeed a wonderful engineer and nice guy even though when he and I met to discuss 'NAP's 'sound' and potential studio enhancements, his 'What does this freak want me to do now?' look was quite perceptible - but Fairbanks protocol of 'Programming First' called for keeping Moto happy regardless of his inanity/sanity/etc. Luckily, most of my requests had merit as I usually got what I wanted (or thought I did). However, the real force behind the Fairbanks sound and engineering identity was that of Dick Smart, who more than lived up to his name, which should have been Dick Genius.
We also had an engineer named Will Fix... go figure.
We also had an engineer named Will Fix... go figure.
"Moto"! Did you ever find out who was stealing your pens from the control room? ;D
-- No - I never found out who was copping my pens. If you have any info, pictures or other damning evidence please forward same. I am still pissed...
Moto... Thanks for proving that it's not just pipes, but (like Biondi, Calhoun, Ocean and others) it's PERSONALITY..... Richards had pipes and an EGO to match second to God.. Great guy, but you RELATED in the guy next door attitude... Just a thanks from the next generation down.. (and in middle age)..
"Skipper T."
"Skipper T."
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