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RCA Radio Station Floor Plan

A

Art Sutton

Guest
I've read that RCA sold radio stations a complete package back in the 1940s including the floor plan for a radio station building. Someone has been kind enough to draw off that floor plan from memory but I wonder if anyone might have an issue of RCA Broadcast News from the 1940s which might actually feature the floor plan for a small market radio station.

Thanks.
 
I have a blueprint of WXLW which was an RCA build. I have it rolled to prevent fading. i really want to get it copied to frame.

I have only the studio not the transmitter where the 5kw transmiter took up one wall of the building. Transmitter site had a bathroom so this really dates the place.

Studio and transmitter were identical with an Art Deco feel to them. Both had neon call letters above the front door. The WXLW transmitter site is still as original at 56th and Georgetown Road in indianapolis.
 
Art, I have a ton of old RCA monthly broadcast news magazines from the late forties through the seventies and remember seeing many articles of the type you are looking for, if I get a few extra minutes Sunday night I will pull the boxes out and see what I can find for you

Chris Hall
 
I know the AM I worked for was suppose to be an "all-in-one" from RCA, but I was never able to find any of the original documents to support that. I had heard that RCA did turnkey setups for both studio and transmitter sites during the era but have on;y read about them.
 
In the 80's I observed a treasure trove of 1940's RCA stuff still in the boxes at the KSEI Pocatello transmitter (an RCA facility). One box had an RCA floor speaker still in the wrappings. The GM at the time threw it all out so he had a place to store what he couldn't fit in his house. You see he had all this nice furniture from "station trade". Just hand the jock copy for the furniture store, have him read it, and make sure it doesn't get on the log.
 
Check www.mcnally.cc . Tom has story and pics behind WFPG-TV. It was an RCA package from Camden. WMID/WGRF Atlantic City was loaded with RCA, but not exclusively.

WJJZ Mt. Holly was a Gates turnkey - Turntables, remote system, "Sta-Level", consoles, phasor unit, BC-5 and Vanguard 1 backup xmtrs.

Sam, I have one wood RCA angled wall monitor with 12" speaker. I had a pair, but loaned one to a mutual friend and never saw it again...Mike Venditti at WIBG.
 
I was with Mike at WIBG. I never saw it. I was with him when he built 1460/WIFI, and I did not see it there either. I will say he did have some incredible collectable stuff though. In fact, the studio at WIBG was all rebuilt original equipment. All tube amplifiers, etc. It was incredible. He had me spinnin oldies during the summer beginning at 6pm till sign-off. This goes way back to the 90’s. That was too much working down the shore under the glow of all those tubes in an innately transistor era. WIFI was all rebuilt original stuff too, less tubes.
 
Back in the 60's, when I was a starry-eyed kid that hung around the local stations, RCA's Atlanta office sent me a set of broadcast equipment catalogs (Radio Studio, TV Studio, TV transmitter), some tear-sheets on AM transmitters, and three reprints from either "B-E" or "BM-E", called "Building your own Radio Station".

They showed three different floor plans (simple to elaborate), and some photos of tower installations and transmitters.
Wish I hadn't tossed them.

Is that what you are looking for?
 
Collins did it too...In fact, our station in Batesville was built from one of their plans...we still have a blueprint....this was in 1952-53. It is built like the proverbial outhouse, and to this day is tight as a drum. The interior walls are vintage cypress with acoustical tiles...heaven forbid that one would try to cut or demolish one! JBI
 
boiseengineer said:
In the 80's I observed a treasure trove of 1940's RCA stuff still in the boxes at the KSEI Pocatello transmitter (an RCA facility). One box had an RCA floor speaker still in the wrappings. The GM at the time threw it all out so he had a place to store what he couldn't fit in his house. You see he had all this nice furniture from "station trade". Just hand the jock copy for the furniture store, have him read it, and make sure it doesn't get on the log.
Click to expand...

I worked at KSEI in 1979-80 and the big RCA xmtr was still in place, but we were using a Power Rock on the air. The on air board in AM was the original RCA boat anchor. The muting relay made a terrible clunking noise on the air every time the mic was turned on and off. I still have some airchecks from there where it can be plainly heard. Otherwise, we had excellent sounding audio with our Optimod and the Power Rock. In fact, we sounded much better than one of our automated FM competitors that ran reels on decks with severely worn heads. Oh, one of the people I worked with there went on to much bigger and better things. After leaving for KBOI, you probably know where Mark Wallengren eventually landed. On the other hand, I left Pocatello for an FM in Albuquerque a few months later. My favorite memory of KSEI was that the PD who hired me was fired on my third day there. For some reason, the PDs I worked for never seemed to last very long, but that was a new record!
 
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