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I Miss....

R

RicoGregg

Things I miss in radio....

The clackety-clack sound of a teletype

The dinging bells of a teletype when there was a bulletin

The Gates Yard board

The two Civil Defense triangles on AM radios (640 & 1240)

The STL links with the telephone dial

The early Ampex plastic-face reel-to-reel players

Studio telephone lines that beeped every 15 seconds

The Mutual Broadcast System (bee-doop!)

The different colors & sizes of staff's FCC licenses posted by the xmtr

The funny, wacky, & quirky locations of some radio stations

Actual radio schedules in the local newspaper

Radio has made some great advancements over the years, but it all seems so colorless now by comparison.

Like Brian Wilson said, I guess I just wasn't made for these times.
 
"Things I miss in radio....The clackety-clack sound of a teletype"

Apparently somebody out there heard you, Rico - the teletype FX is back in Los Angeles on KFWB News 98...uh, I mean KFWB News 980.

I guess I miss abbreviated AM frequency IDs in this digital tuner world where you have to be frequencially correct.
 
Like Brian Wilson said, I guess I just wasn't made for these times.
That's Brian Wilson the musical genius, right? Not Brian Wilson the radio guy...

I remember the old long distance phone beeps, too! And radio schedules in the newspaper! Actually, they do still list radio ballgame schedules in our local papers.

Doesn't CNN Radio still use the old Mutual Bee-doop? (That's so Old Mutual...Sorry.)
 
The 400Hz phone "beep" was an FCC mandate to let callers on the other end of the conversation know they were being recorded or broadcast.

I miss stereo mics on voice on FM stations. Wideband AM.

Things I DON'T miss: 1/4 phone plug patch bays with corroded contacts that cut out in middle broadcast.

Wearing wrist straps to be grounded so as not to discharge static electricity and knock out the "computer".
AT&T Long Lines network delivered audio.
Dial-up Gates remote point directional array tower readings hourly. A number for each tower. (4 in Mt. Holly NJ WJJZ-AM)
Lugging Carts and TT's to Remote Broadcasts, hooking mixer to 5Kc line...or worse, dial up.
Fun, but dreadful 16" turntables adapted to play 7" 45rpm records.
Cue burns on styrene pressings.
Carts that jammed, misaligned heads, worn pressure pads. Fear of playing anything longer than 3 1/2 minute carts because of drag. UNCUED carts left by the previous jock (always at a critical hourly sweep element). "Thrifty" owners who insisted on fitting TWO songs on each cart to save money...and never knowing WHICH song was next.
60 cycle hum from bad filter caps. 120cycle hum from poorly engineered ground loops.
Worn stylii. Bent stylii. "I'll bring it back after I do this wedding" stylii.
 
amfmsw, thanks for reminding me of the other side of the coin. :)
Now I don't feel so bad. I hated those damn patch bays!
I do kinda miss those old Russco turntables, though.

Corky, yes, I meant the musical Brian Wilson. That song I quoted is from his solo works era.
 
More:

I don't miss AP (white) UPI (yellow) paper having run out hours earlier during the last jock's shift.
I don't miss purple fingers after changing the AP ribbon.
I don't miss ribbon's so consumed that they leave paper unreadable, and are literally typed through.
I don't miss getting the AT&T repairman to get the AP machine "clickity - clacking" on holiday weekends.

I do miss the EBS System that needed NOT to be replaced. I do miss Boz Scaggs songs triggering the EBS monitor!
 
Lkeller said:
"Things I miss in radio....The clackety-clack sound of a teletype"
Apparently somebody out there heard you, Rico - the teletype FX is back in Los Angeles on KFWB News 98...uh, I mean KFWB News 980.
I guess I miss abbreviated AM frequency IDs in this digital tuner world where you have to be frequencially correct.
Click to expand...
Interesting you should mention that. I worked for "Radio 54" or "the big 54" as they were known at the time, when new management came in, and wanted us to start referring to ourselves as "stereo 540." The "stereo" part was because we had started broadcasting in stereo, but I asked about the transition to "540." He said it was because people associated those two-digit numbers with CB radio channels. CB radio? In 1993? (That's what year it was at the time.) I thought his explanation was lame (and waaaaaayyyyy off base!), but I went along with it anyway.
 
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