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Some KSFO/KYA and KFRC Aircheck Videos from the 80s

nitnitr said:
Don't miss, if you haven't, the Don Rose YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIxI8Khh9Vg

This is a classic. Look at his jacket at the beginning of the video. Wow, was that 70's!
Click to expand...

I'd never heard/seen this documentary kind of thing. Very good. I'm glad that DDR credits Steve Rood for his help with the program, too. But I'm very curious; it looks like DDR is doing combo, because it's clear that DDR is starting something before turning off his mic. So what is Steve doing, just wild tracks? Also, I had thought that union rules in force at the time prevented DJs from actually touching anything but a cough button.

Can anyone enlighten us on this?
 
I don't know what the union situation was at KFRC but when I was at KSFO '78-'84 we were restricted to just a mike button.
If I wanted to tape an interview for playback on my show later I had to get an engineer and go into the production studio.
What was weird though was that the all night guy was combo.

When King broascasting bought KSFO in 1984 they moved to 300 broadway and it was combo, although the morning guy had
a board op...but it wasn't required by any union.

I have to tell you that not having to do combo makes life easier.

Jerry Gordon
 
Those are all California Aircheck Video segments (KYA, KFRC)...There are LOTS of old San Francisco/San Jose videos I don't have up on YouTube...

Would there be any interest in a DVD of just San Francisco/San Jose radio videos from the 80's-90's? I've been considering assembling a DVD of just that. Keep in mind, it wouldn't be free "like the Internet"...but I would probably sell them for a reduced price on Ebay...
 
DavidKaye said:
nitnitr said:
Don't miss, if you haven't, the Don Rose YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIxI8Khh9Vg

This is a classic. Look at his jacket at the beginning of the video. Wow, was that 70's!
Click to expand...

I'd never heard/seen this documentary kind of thing. Very good. I'm glad that DDR credits Steve Rood for his help with the program, too. But I'm very curious; it looks like DDR is doing combo, because it's clear that DDR is starting something before turning off his mic. So what is Steve doing, just wild tracks? Also, I had thought that union rules in force at the time prevented DJs from actually touching anything but a cough button.

Can anyone enlighten us on this?
Click to expand...

David, as far as I know, Dr. Don didn't have controls for anything other than turning his mic on and off. I never observed him doing his show back at the Bush Street location, but after they moved to the 500 Washington Street office building, KFRC had a second air studio that was only used by Dr. Don/George Zema (Dr. Don was located in a huge voice booth, George in a large control room across the glass from him). In later years, I believe that the George Zema control room became the KYCY control room when they moved into the KFRC building.

I was in the George Zema room for the KFRC 1986 20th Anniversary weekend, shooting video of Dr. Don's segments through the glass. I don't recall Dr. Don setting up any specific drops with George beforehand, but that was very possible, that it happened but I just don't recall it. He definitely didn't fire anything off from his booth; George Zema started all the drops. Dr. Don gave hand cues to him.

When Dr. Don was doing the morning show at KKIS, he was sitting in front of a board, but the only thing going through it was his mic. His engineer fired everything from the control room across the glass. Dr. Don DID tell him before each break exactly which drops he wanted and in what order. He had a binder with all that info in front of him that he could refer to for cart number, etc.
 
I chanced to be in Dr. Don's studio a couple of mornings in late 1980. I was in the studio seen in the B&W documentary. Dr. Don had a button which operated a buzzer on the opposite side of the glass with which he cued the sound effects he set up with his engineer during songs. Now that I've seen the doc ISTR that Dr. Don had another button which either started the songs directly or which activated a different sound to cue the engineer to start the song. To Dr. Don's left was another tiny booth (the camera shoots Dr. Don through the window of this booth in the doc) where the newsman would dash in, read his newscast, and bolt. Dr. Don and the newsman had RCA BK5A or BK5B ribbon mics as seen in the doc.
 
Chris:

Funny you should mention the RCA BK5B mikes. That's what I use here in my home studio. I was surprised to see it in the Dr. Don clip.
I knew that KHJ used them during their heyday in the '60s. Maybe it was universal at the RKO General stations.
Sometimes companies do that at all their stations. RCA made ribbon mikes, almost exclisively since the early days of radio.
Google RCA microphones sometime, you'll be amazed.

Jerry Gordon
 
chris319 said:
I chanced to be in Dr. Don's studio a couple of mornings in late 1980. I was in the studio seen in the B&W documentary. Dr. Don had a button which operated a buzzer on the opposite side of the glass with which he cued the sound effects he set up with his engineer during songs. Now that I've seen the doc ISTR that Dr. Don had another button which either started the songs directly or which activated a different sound to cue the engineer to start the song. To Dr. Don's left was another tiny booth (the camera shoots Dr. Don through the window of this booth in the doc) where the newsman would dash in, read his newscast, and bolt. Dr. Don and the newsman had RCA BK5A or BK5B ribbon mics as seen in the doc.
Click to expand...

It would have to have been a cue button.
 
As you can see in the film, the BK5A/B had that giant spherical windscreen. I wonder how effective it was in stopping plosives and if that was a consideration in selecting those mics.
 
Chris: No "plosives" with the BK mike. the screen works. But I never had a "plosive" problem with the other RCA ribbon mikes, like the 77D or 44BX. The most universal mike now is the Electro Voice RE20..which I used for years at stations I doin't think you
could "Pop" that one if you tried.

Jerry Gordon
 
Used a little condenser called the Altec 29B back in the 70's....actually tried 2 for a while for stereo effect with the on air voice. We used to joke you could pop an 'O' with those things, even with the windscreen!
 
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