• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Michael Tearson's NEW Marconi Experiment

R

realT

Just wanted to alert y'all my new Webcast at www.iradiophilly.com of Michael Tearson's NEW Marconi Experiment has first airing this weekend Saturday 3/23 8 AM on the Ziggy channel and Sunday 6 PM on Libra. The first 5 weeks are PREVIEW shows while I work out any kinks in the show (not that there are any). The official PREMIERE will be the weekend of April 26-27, days before the 45th anniversary April 29 of Dave Herman's first edition of The Marconi Experiment on WMMR.

I have spoken with Dave who is living a really good life in St. Croix, and he enthusiastically gives his blessings for the new show. He also asked me to express how hearing about the great love Phuiladelphia still has for him for his 4/68 to 2/70 run in town.

The show is conceived in the spirit of exploration and discovery that was hallmark to those early days of album rock, something utterly weeded out of broadcast radio long since. I will be creating the shows with music of the times, but also music from any time up to now that works with the idea. Just like Jerry Stevens had us do in the halcyon WMMR days.

When Herman departed for NYC Michael Cuscuna took over the shift and kept the Marconi name. Then in September Cuscuna also departed for NYC and I took over the shift. In my first break coming out of Boz Scaggs "I'll Be Long Gone (something of a good luck charm for me) I introed myself and said, "The Marconi Experiment is OVER! It was a success. NOW we're playing for real!" And with that I was off and sprinting for the next 6 years. Thus I figure since I retired the Marconi name I have custody of it, and it really is time to bring it back.

I sense a true parallel between the original rise of FM and the flowering of Internet radio which is clearly gaining steam by thw day. It couldn't feel sweeter to do radio with some imagination engaged.

I promise a really fun ride if you give me the hour. I know I am going to have a great time. And, YES, the strains of the Beatles' Flying and a quote from Kahlil Gibran will open the show just like Dave Herman used to.
 
How long is the show? One hour as implied by your last paragraph?

BTW, iRadioPhilly is available via the TuneIn app, which (if you buy the pro version) allows you to timer record shows.

Hence the question. :)
 
Just wish iradiophilly was in stereo.......Maybe MT will help them get over some humps and allow them to make the (I'm sure significant) investment to upgrade......128 AAC would be awesome! (have never seen 128 AAC, but it would be better than 128 MP3 I would think)... High quality operation all around though...maybe best I have seen in internet radio. Nice to access in Tunein with a "Local" search, I have a few of their stations saved as favorites.
 
Yes, the show is one hour. I am hoping to eventually expand to 2 hours, but for now the motto "Give me an hour, and I'll take you for a cool ride" works fine.
 
Heck, almost half the FM band WAS in monaural in '68. The "Stereo" ones I remember were WFLN, WCAU-FM, WPBS, WDVR, WWSH. Can't remember about WDAS-FM in Stereo then. WMMR was a multiplex newbie at the WIP-FM switchover.

Even then, There were so few multiplex capable receivers. A few Zenith, Magnavox and Philco hi-fi consoles with 10uV tuners, you really needed an outdoor antenna in the burbs to trigger the "Stereo" pilot. OR, you may have had access to a friend's dad's Fisher 500-C or Marantz 10B or balls-to-the-wall McIntosh layout...when the parents weren't home, because we were forbidden to play rock 'n roll on it.

Back then, FM meant "Fine Music"...and being able to listen to Wibbage on 94.1 during thunderstorms without static after dark in Pottstown. Then came Ron Diamond on WIFI 92. In mono...but only on the second floor where the antenna was higher.
 
amfmsw said:
Heck, almost half the FM band WAS in monaural in '68. The "Stereo" ones I remember were WFLN, WCAU-FM, WPBS, WDVR, WWSH. Can't remember about WDAS-FM in Stereo then. WMMR was a multiplex newbie at the WIP-FM switchover.
Click to expand...

There may have been stations that only used stereo at certain times. I remember that my Dad's mono FM radio had a sticker on the side listing the area FMs with notations about whether they were "full stereo" or "part stereo." (It had been handed out by WDVR, which was proudly "full stereo.")
 
amfmsw said:
Heck, almost half the FM band WAS in monaural in '68. The "Stereo" ones I remember were WFLN, WCAU-FM, WPBS, WDVR, WWSH. Can't remember about WDAS-FM in Stereo then. WMMR was a multiplex newbie at the WIP-FM switchover.
Click to expand...

In 1968, WFIL-FM was also broadcasting mostly in full stereo. They switched to the "Popular 102" format and played as many stereo recordings as they could. I DO however remember that every weekday from 1 PM to 2 PM, they switched off the stereo. It was quite a puzzler until one day when I asked their chief engineer about it. I was told that that particular hour had been "purchased" for use by an outfit that used the multiplex signal for its own purposes, and because of that, they needed to switch off the stereo. It was a doctors' group or a medical outfit that received this program on special receivers designed for that purpose.

Years later, 102.1 FM used a sub-carrier authorization to broadcast something called PRN, the Physicians' Radio Network. It had the effect of putting a whispery/whistly sound on the signal, particularly on bad stereo radios.
 
Yes, we leased our SCA at WFPG-FM in Atlantic City to Muzak. Many stations didn't use their SCA because the extra carrier counted in their total modulation level, making them quieter on the dial to regular receivers. But WFPG was Bonneville Beautiful Music, so it just mad money. When Muzak went satellite, we leased it to The Greek Network, and did Reading To The Blind, daily papers and news.

Heck, many didn't like Multiplexing because the Stereo Pilot ate up 9% of their audio modulation, and there was so little Stereo penetration in '68-70. Less than HD now. I do remember those FM Stereo Dial Cards. WJBR also had something similar.

The radio shop I worked at sold Zenith & Magnavox. The showroom had a master antenna system, with the 16 element FM yagi pointed to Wilmington, and the consoles tuned to 99.5 to show how sensitive the tuners were! (after disconnecting the internal dipoles) This was in Pottstown, deep fringe for THOSE tuners. But it popped in full stereo, AFTER being amplified 30db.
 
I think being alive in that decaid and hav ing $$$ to have good stereo equipment would have been fun. Now we got these little dinky things that play digital files, no real buttens, knobs and leevers etc.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom