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Stone age question... carts...

S

SFM-Ptgal

Read this answer somewhere on a Youtube video about a bad broadcast cart (****-** pressure pads)

«That's why some stations recorded their stereo carts as L+R and L-R instead of the Left and Right channels, to avoid that whooshy phase cancellation effect when the cart starts to wear out or when the cart machine gets a little bit out of alignment.» Is that so? what machines were able to do that?
 
There were outboard boxes that did this--feeding L+R to the left channel, L-R to the right, then reversing the process when the carts were played back. (or was it visa versa?) Also believe the TomCat line might have used this scheme but my memory is hazy.

I still remember one Christmas--the AM station I worked at bought an FM that used this system. Despite our warnings, the PD tried to play some of the Christmas music carts inherited from the FM on the AM (which was AM stereo). I remember coming out of Ponderosa, turning on my radio, and thinking the transmitter was undergoing a melt-down...
 
If I may pose this... Having never worked at a station that did anything other than commercials on cart, what was the allure to music on carts?
 
My justification: No cueing, no record burn, no jackets, easier to locate in rack JBI
 
At WTIX New Orleans,we started putting music on cart because the dreaded cue burn was a factor and the quality of the vinyl wasn't good as it use to be.And with 6 cart machines it was no problem,not to mention the 2 McKenzies we had the jingles and news intro on.Ask JBI,those were the days my friend.Lot more fun back then.
 
After KSL-AM Radio went (Kahn) stereo, they used the older cart machines for commercials (in mono) and used another (Tomcats or Pacific Recorders, I can't remember which) for stereo, using matrix stereo.
 
Oldies: About the old days..My first boss told me that a DJ had to be able to do all his business in three
minutes or less. There was no album tracking, and no segueing. You learned to have everything ready before making the run..heaven forbid that somebody got in your way!
 
3 minutes?? Now that would be tough.We had Stairway to Heaven,Hey Jude and Mcarthur Park on cart for the potty run...My Tix days were 67-70...if you recall the avg length of mid 60's songs were barely 3 min.,some shorter.Potty better be close for that run!!
 
In the late 50's, most songs were less than 3 minutes, and spot loads in smaller markets were in the neighborhood of 15 minutes per hour. In the precart days, r/r tape machines I.E. Ampex and Magnecord were king. Working a 4 hour shift was considered a days work...Memories...JBI
 
Scotchcarts are the best IMHO. Better tape to head tracking and no worn out pads to flake apart!

R
 
kenglish said:
After KSL-AM Radio went (Kahn) stereo, they used the older cart machines for commercials (in mono) and used another (Tomcats or Pacific Recorders, I can't remember which) for stereo, using matrix stereo.
Click to expand...

PRE made the TomCat.
 
jboyd said:
Oldies: About the old days..My first boss told me that a DJ had to be able to do all his business in three
minutes or less. There was no album tracking, and no segueing. You learned to have everything ready before making the run..heaven forbid that somebody got in your way!
Click to expand...

At one of the mid-70's Billboard conventions in LA, they had an auditorium session for all the attendees in which a major "player" in radio sat on a stool, center stage, under a spotlight and took "hot seat" questions.

I attended the one where Dan Ingram was in the hot seat.

A young man, who identified himself as being with a college station, and no doubt intimidated by Mr. Ingram, asked, "Mr. Ingram, sir, what is the most important thing you have learned in all your career in radio?"

To which Mr. Ingram replied, "... how to take a 3-minute s--t".

...Seventy-seven, doubleyou, ayh, bee, cee. (Chime)
 
Or the guy at KFOG late night who stepped outside for a cigarette and the door shut and locked behind him. Or the guy on WGY coming back from his break in the elevator, and it got stuck. Maybe we need to start a separate thread on that. One of the good things about automation.
 
A touch of a twist on all this....

The station where I started in radio was in the basement of a theater building. The studio/control room was just one tiny engineering shop away from the theater men's room. On hot summer (non-air conditioned) nights you had to leave the shop door open to get any air at all. Of course you also got the sounds from the room beyond. All was well until an intermission (there were double-bill shows back then) coincided with a 15-minute local newscast.

You guess the rest.
 
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