Songs that sounded "better" on AM

[Tom Wells]

I really love the sound of 45s, despite their many problems, because of the different and often hotter mix.
Now with digital editing tools it is amazing just how good they can clean up.
Hot water, dish detergent, isopropyl alcohol, and a brush still removes over half the noise.

But when you get one cleaned up and put it on the AM over-the-air it's magical to listen on a 60's car radio.

The AM car radio was at its height of development in the early 60's, when they were just getting rid of last of the tubes,
which by then worked on 12volts with no vibrator for high volt DC. Both the last tube radios and the very first transistor types
often had little or no high frequency "rolloff" caps, save those in the detector section for filtering RF out.
The selectivity of the AM front-end and (with or without RF amp) and the 2 section IF amp gave 18-20 khz wide response with
pretty steep slopes. This meant that with your tone control which when cut REAL hard gave about a 2khz cutoff, you could
enjoy 20-15000 hz reporduction in full-reproduction when slightly side tuned, or center tuned and dull sounding.
If you were listening to a big local, you never heard side channels, but it sure was hi-fidelity on the high frequency end if you
were a little off center, as was usually the case. Most people would at least tune to where it wasn't raspy, and within that range there
was a very wide range that sounded very good. You could tune up or down to avoid a splattered upper or lower sideband.
New digital tuned radios unfortunately don't offer this. Too bad, they could sound so much better if only the
people who make such radios would design a truly analog tracking voltage to the oscillator and tuning diodes......

Anyway, don't discount just how good (not loud) car radios of that day did sound.
The peculiar quality added by the big germanium output transistor ?% harmonic distortion is oddly pleasing....

 

[Savage]

Ahh, yess...."Music To Watch Girls by." Used to fill up to top-of-hour newscasts in 1966-67 so much I swear some people thought it was part of the news intro.

"Something Stupid" by Frank and Nancy - literally, the first record I ever played on the radio, and number one of the charts back in the heady days of April 1967. I'll never forget nervously cueing it up on the Gates CB-77 and rehearsing what my first voiceover intro was going to say. I must have checked the intro time and cued and re-cued it thirty times, I was so scared of wowing it in or stepping on the vocal. The fellow-teenager jock who was training me eyed this spectacle, and said something like, "you wouldn't be nervous now, would you?"

Tom Wells, as you listen to the AM radio in your ragtop, would it be safe to assume you're also basking in the sound of.....well, maybe a Mopar Leaning Tower Of Power slant-six?? Would the radio by any chance be a....Transitone?? ;D

 

[oldiesfan6479]

I'll never forget nervously cueing it up on the Gates CB-77

Was this turntable the one with the pop-up 45 spindle and the red flip-down/up
start/stop switch next to the speed toggle? I used such a Gates TT in a TV
audio setup and hated it as it needed a quarter-turn for an LP and a half-turn
for a 45 (back turns) in order not to wow the song. QRKs were much better--
you could cue a 45 back just a hair and be wow-less.

"Something Stupid" by Frank and Nancy - literally, the first record I ever played
on the radio...(snip)...I must have checked the intro time and cued and re-cued
it thirty times, I was so scared of wowing it in or stepping on the vocal.

So you're the one who put the cue burn on it! ;D

BTW, did you hit the post? (Old Gringo should ignore this thread. )

 

[Savage]

Mais out, mon ami - definitely hit the post. I could always talk up the vocal after hearing an intro a couple of times - still can to this day. When digital timers came in circa 1973 I still never used them on intros; just listened to the intro music while I was talking. That way I could concentrate on what I was saying, not on timing to the vocal.

Yes, the CB-77 had the red rocker switch for the motor. It also had two nasty habits - if the jock whose shift preceded yours was rough on the switch, slapping it with a big ol' meaty thumb instead of just pressing it, the 77s had a mercury capsule clipped to the underside of the red plastic rocker which was the actual switch. The tip-capsule would fall out of its clip and then the turntable wouldn't turn off. You'd have to open the pedestal base to retrieve the mercury switch (and of course, not turning off the 117VAC first was a mistake you made only once.) The other bad feature was that pop-up 45 adapter. If you didn't secure it carefully when playing an LP or transcription, it could suddenly deploy, which Murphy's Law dictated ONLY happened when that turntable happened to be on the air. The tonearm would go flying.

At WIBG there was a sawed-off piece of four-inch cast-iron sewer pipe in the studio. We were ordered to place it over the record label any time we played an LP, as insurance against 45-adapter on-air disasters with the CB-77s.

You're right. The QRKs had that unique milled-out center so 45 adapters weren't necessary. They were fast starters but had a lot of rumble.

 

[Tom Wells]

Ahh, yess...."Music To Watch Girls by." Used to fill up to top-of-hour newscasts in 1966-67 so much I swear some people thought it was part of the news intro.

"Something Stupid" by Frank and Nancy - literally, the first record I ever played on the radio, and number one of the charts back in the heady days of April 1967. I'll never forget nervously cueing it up on the Gates CB-77 and rehearsing what my first voiceover intro was going to say. I must have checked the intro time and cued and re-cued it thirty times, I was so scared of wowing it in or stepping on the vocal. The fellow-teenager jock who was training me eyed this spectacle, and said something like, "you wouldn't be nervous now, would you?"

Tom Wells, as you listen to the AM radio in your ragtop, would it be safe to assume you're also basking in the sound of.....well, maybe a Mopar Leaning Tower Of Power slant-six?? Would the radio by any chance be a....Transitone?? ;D

The AM only radios I recall being named as " Mopar Transaudio" if they were the good Bendix.
I think they transitones were the cheapies made by Tenna. I've seen them, but don't think I have one anywhere.
Somewhere around 1970, Chrysler started using Motorola radios.

The '66 convertible has a 383 four-barrel and factory duals so there's always a pretty good rumble along with the Bendix-Mopar AM/FM radio in the convertible.

The '65 and '72 Darts have Motorola AM/FMs and 225 slant sixes. The '71 Dart has a 340 and a Blaupunkt Richmond from 1982...outstanding AM section,
but of course it doesn't go above 1630.

I've never had a real broadcast turntable, always thought I'd get one someday, but it never happened.

My wife says I still have a crush on Nancy Sinatra. I don't think I do but there's certainly more Nancy Sinatra on my station than in most formats.