I caught a You Tube clip of a 1973 performance of Cat Stevens doing Foreigner Suite. Remember watching it on ABC's "In Concert" series on WCVB-TV5 and listening in stereo on WBCN-FM 104.1 I was told that WCVB had to use a special Video recorder at WGBH that could reproduce the video and mono audio for TV and a second stereo soundtrack for FM I think in the early 70s didnt WGBH broadcast BSO concerts on TV2 and 89.7FM?
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early TV /FM stereo simulcasts
- Thread starter mgpt6
- Start date
mgpt6 said:I caught a You Tube clip of a 1973 performance of Cat Stevens doing Foreigner Suite. Remember watching it on ABC's "In Concert" series on WCVB-TV5 and listening in stereo on WBCN-FM 104.1 I was told that WCVB had to use a special Video recorder at WGBH that could reproduce the video and mono audio for TV and a second stereo soundtrack for FM I think in the early 70s didnt WGBH broadcast BSO concerts on TV2 and 89.7FM?
Yep. The VTRs generally available in the early 1970s had only one audio track. Kinda. Actually, they did have a second track but it was subject to noise -- it was physically close to a "control track" necessary for the video to work. If you've ever listened to timecode, that's kinda what it sounded like. There tended to be a lot of crosstalk. The noisy audio track was generally used for internal cuing purposes; the station I worked for recorded 7 seconds of tone on this track, ending at the start of video. You cued the machine to the beginning of the cue tone, then rolled it at :59:53 & when the tone stopped, you took it on the air.
I know MTV had two early specially-modified recorders with two audio tracks. Not sure whether they used the cuing track, or split the "normal" audio track.
By 1980 or so, 1" VTRs were common. These had four audio tracks, making stereo a non-issue.
The 1976 remake of "Peter Pan" on NBC-TV (which starred Sandy Duncan in the role Mary Martin had done on TV live in 1955 and 1956 and again in a 1960 taped version which was repeated annually for the rest of that decade) was simulcast in FM stereo in many cities.
If my memory serves me correct, WCRB-FM (then a commercial station at 102.5) simulcast the audio in stereo.
And even prior to that, there were a couple of occasions I know of when there was an AM/FM/TV stereo simulcast, both on ABC-TV.
One was an episode of "Walt Disney Presents" in the late 1950's, when one audio channel was carried on AM, the other audio channel on FM, and monoaural audio on ABC-affiliated TV stations carrying the show.
I believe a similar method was briefly used around the same time for a few episodes of "Lawrence Welk".
If my memory serves me correct, WCRB-FM (then a commercial station at 102.5) simulcast the audio in stereo.
And even prior to that, there were a couple of occasions I know of when there was an AM/FM/TV stereo simulcast, both on ABC-TV.
One was an episode of "Walt Disney Presents" in the late 1950's, when one audio channel was carried on AM, the other audio channel on FM, and monoaural audio on ABC-affiliated TV stations carrying the show.
I believe a similar method was briefly used around the same time for a few episodes of "Lawrence Welk".
If memory serves me...MTV audio was available in stereo via cable systems that offered FM stereo service. The idea was to put your stereo speakers on both sides of your TV and groove to stereo sound. However, I believe some people just listened to the MTV audio as they would an FM stereo station, and even went so far as to log it on Arbitron sheets.
On a somewhat related topic, back in the late 60's, WGBH-TV in Boston showed an "art project" called "City Motion Space Game" which involved putting two TVs side-by-side, one tuned to channel 2 and the other to channel 44. While not actually a stereo broadcast, the program flowed from TV to TV, creating a kind of stereo effect.
On a somewhat related topic, back in the late 60's, WGBH-TV in Boston showed an "art project" called "City Motion Space Game" which involved putting two TVs side-by-side, one tuned to channel 2 and the other to channel 44. While not actually a stereo broadcast, the program flowed from TV to TV, creating a kind of stereo effect.
Jake 1966:
You're right.
It was called "Hot Hitvideo".
I believe longtime Boston radio personality Cindy Bailen, then with WHTT-103.3, was hostess.
You're right.
It was called "Hot Hitvideo".
I believe longtime Boston radio personality Cindy Bailen, then with WHTT-103.3, was hostess.
In 1970 or 1971 , Westinghouse had a Quadraphonic broadcast of the jefferson Airplane, Greatful Dead and Santana. It was on a Saturday nite broadcast on WBZ-TV4 and 2 channels on WBCN-104FM and 2nd 2 channels on WGBH -89.7 FM. It must have been a logitical nightmare to keep a TV station and 2 FM stations in sync back 40 years ago.
From 1969 until about 73 or 74, the saturday nite BSO concerts were in Quad. WGBH FM and WCRB -FM spliting the 4 channels of audio. At first,it was one doing the 2 left channels and the other the 2 right channels. Later it was changed to one 2 doing the 2 front channels ,left and right; and the other 2 rear channels ,left and right.
Just forwarding to 2012; we have TV with 1080i /720p HD video and lossy 5.1 surround audio. DVD with 480p video with lossy 5.1 surround audio.
and Blu_-Ray with 1080p HD video and up to 7.1 channels lossless PCM audio. FM Radio still 2-channel stereo.
From 1969 until about 73 or 74, the saturday nite BSO concerts were in Quad. WGBH FM and WCRB -FM spliting the 4 channels of audio. At first,it was one doing the 2 left channels and the other the 2 right channels. Later it was changed to one 2 doing the 2 front channels ,left and right; and the other 2 rear channels ,left and right.
Just forwarding to 2012; we have TV with 1080i /720p HD video and lossy 5.1 surround audio. DVD with 480p video with lossy 5.1 surround audio.
and Blu_-Ray with 1080p HD video and up to 7.1 channels lossless PCM audio. FM Radio still 2-channel stereo.
mgpt6 said:In 1970 or 1971 , Westinghouse had a Quadraphonic broadcast of the jefferson Airplane, Greatful Dead and Santana. It was on a Saturday nite broadcast on WBZ-TV4 and 2 channels on WBCN-104FM and 2nd 2 channels on WGBH -89.7 FM. It must have been a logitical nightmare to keep a TV station and 2 FM stations in sync back 40 years ago.
In the days before digital, it was probably *easier* to keep three stations in sync.....
The sync problems we have today are because it takes time for signals to get through digital processing equipment -- more time if it has to go through more equipment. That, and different models of equipment have different delays..
In 1971 there was no such gear. It took time for signals to get through analog equipment, but so little time that no human could perceive the delays...
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