• 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

Technology Upgrades

J

jhead

I did an interview a year or so back with Red Jones, former PD and personality at WQXI. I asked him how the studios were set up for the jocks to work in and found that there were 6 turn tables. Two were for commericals, and four for songs. Thank God for Computors.

Here's a legit question: Where were the commerical platters pressed at? Was it in house?
 
Most stations were supplied free copies of 45s and LPs which were pressed at plants either owned by the record companies or done as outsourcing. Thank God for computors (and by the way it's comput "e" r)? When a jock was on the air he/she "produced" the show, in other words he/she fired off every event. There was no time for watching TV, talking on the phone or posting on radio boards. Occasionally if you had a three minute song you could run out to grab a cup of left over coffee. If you were really lucky, you'd have a four minute song and you could hit the can. It took technical and creative talent. But that was then and this is now and radio is so much more entertaining, don't you think? By the way, Red Jones probably has more talent in his little finger than 90% of the bozos on the air.
 
I agree. Thank God for the upgrades. I am glad to know how the commericals were produced. Red Jones does have more talent in his little finger than all the talwent in atlanta.
 
The question wasn't really answered... where were the commercial platters pressed?

I never worked at a station that played commercials on disk, although I did work at a couple that had huge turntables that had a 16rpm speed for "transcriptions." Transcriptions were large program length disks. I never saw any of them, though. Programs on LP disk were already at 33 1/3 by the time I came along.

But if QXI played commercials on disk, this must have been before broadcast carts (which were invented in 1954) became popular.

I have seen some old agency commercials on disk, but never knew of a station that played them direct from the disk. They were dubbed to cart. Of course those commercials wouldn't have been pressed at the station, but what about local commercials? Were they on disk?
 
amos said:
I have seen some old agency commercials on disk, but never knew of a station that played them direct from the disk. They were dubbed to cart. Of course those commercials wouldn't have been pressed at the station, but what about local commercials? Were they on disk?
Click to expand...

Check THIS SITE. Go down to "1340/WALR", and in the second paragraph, it reads "In the '60s, Atlanta had four rock 'n roll stations: WPLO, WQXI, and 1340 WAKE. Operating from the Ponce De Leon lobby of the Georgian Terrace Hotel, WAKE was king. It's stars included Paul Drew, Buddy Moore, Bill Drake (of Drake-Chenault fame), Ricky Lane (Vic Adderhold). It was highly produced and the first Atlanta station to use reverb and pulsing oscillators during the news. For a long time there were no cart machines. All music and commercials were on disc, so the jocks really worked."
 
I forgot all about the "pulsing oscillators" during the newscast! Between every story(or tease)you would hear that effect. Radio was really "high pressure" (very intense production) and it was fast paced.
Top Forty really was "showbiz" back in those days.....and it was much more fun! And yes, the jock really had to work and required TALENT!! What passes for talent today.....well...er...these folks would have never cut it in the heyday of music radio.....
 
knozall said:
Most stations were supplied free copies of 45s and LPs which were pressed at plants either owned by the record companies or done as outsourcing. Thank God for computors (and by the way it's comput "e" r)? When a jock was on the air he/she "produced" the show, in other words he/she fired off every event. There was no time for watching TV, talking on the phone or posting on radio boards. Occasionally if you had a three minute song you could run out to grab a cup of left over coffee. If you were really lucky, you'd have a four minute song and you could hit the can. It took technical and creative talent. But that was then and this is now and radio is so much more entertaining, don't you think? By the way, Red Jones probably has more talent in his little finger than 90% of the bozos on the air.
Click to expand...

Speaking of timing on records, don't forget My Home's In Alabama, when you get an intestinal bug....
 
Remember timing the song intro and writing it on the actual record (old 45 or 33 1/3). That allowed you to talk over the intro covering a liner card. When was the last time you heard a DJ talk over the intro of a song?
 
Remember when every record had a cue "burn?" Every song started with "schhhhhhh".....
Or were you fortunate enough to work at a station where they actually changed the styli before it was bent backwards....or gone entirely?
 
In Tuscaloosa, each jock was given two new styli every 90 days. If he tore them up before that, he hadda produce his own. (The jocks also wore coat and tie to remotes.... remember the Day?)
The music guy dated the 45s, and harassed the record reps for reservice on a regular basis. He'd check the dates on everything in the bins regularly, look at the 3x5s, and replace the records after about a hundred spins, about the time the cue burn was beginning to become audible. Place sounded real good.
For the children amongh us, in the day of playinjg 45s, it was common to put a bin for each song category either in front of the jock or above the turntables, with a 3x5 card on it. 45s were kept in heavy green maniia sleeves. Each category was color coded with stickon dots, and the clock was dotted. Take the front record out of the bin, cue it, and when you start it, put the date and time on the 3x5 card. When you replace it, it goes to the back of the bin. Simple system, worked great. Want to speed up the hot rotation? Take three records out of that bin, put new colors on them, and move them to the recurrent or older bin(s). Does this date me?
 
littlejohn said:
Does this date me?
Click to expand...

Yes. Yes it does ;)

Just as my mentioning that the heavyweight sleeves weren't always green, but also came in blue, red, yellow, and IIRC orange. Those were sometimes used in combination with those classic Avery stick-on dot labels in matching colors, which in turn were sometimes dated by hand with the date a song went into a certain category.
 
How much money was on the "pop-cicle stick" tonearms at your station?
How many turns of tape were on the turntable pucks? Anyone play music faster than 5-6%?
Did your bathroom have remote starts for anything?
How many different color lights were in the studio?
Any interesting "stage props" in the studio.....did they light up, spin, dance,etc.?
 
At a station in South Georgia, I was rebuilding a studio, I found a garden hose under the console, with a box on one end...it contained a small speaker, the other end of the several hundred foot hose had a mike stuffed into it.....


That was the stations mike chain reverb. Amazingly, It sounded pretty good!

This same station had RCA cart decks...the tert tone would light a yellow light about 20 seconds out, and it would latch a relay. The next tert tone lit up a red light, indicating 10 seconds to the end. The sec tone triggered a bright flood lamp to wake you up...and also triggered the next cart if nobody got in the way.

They had a really well constructed remote control panel under the RCA console, pushbutton start and stops for the Turntables (QRK Btw, with several turns of splicing tape on the spindle to speed the things up) At the time, this was a high tech station. In its day it ruled the air with its 1000 watts day and 250 night.

Oh yeah, processing:

Mike: A shure level lock (Ouch) Console out Into a gates Solid Stateman AGC, a Lauderdale Electronics Lab 16 band EQ, and then a Gates Solid Statesman AM Limiter. All things considered: It screamed, thumped and was amazingly bright. The FM side had gates FM limiters...they did not scream when running into the Moseley Stereo gen.

OK, 30 years ago. Holy crow....for lack of a better un-editable statement.
 
taylorengineer said:
How much money was on the "pop-cicle stick" tonearms at your station?
Click to expand...

$0.15 I believe, a dime & a nickel IIRC.

Anyone play music faster than 5-6%?
Click to expand...
Occasionally, but only as a lark in really dead hours.

Did your bathroom have remote starts for anything?
Click to expand...
No, but that was a pity.

How many different color lights were in the studio?
Click to expand...
Only one in the light fixtures ... but we also had the option of using a table lamp as the primary lighting source if the mood struck us. It was quite homey really.

Any interesting "stage props" in the studio.....did they light up, spin, dance,etc.?
Click to expand...
The closest thing to a prop was also one of the most unusual. The Christmas tree was never lit but rather was decorated with various colored 45's that were either duplicates or stiffs. That may not have been unique ... but the fact that we often didn't take the tree down & pack it up until July or so, instead it just sat that with a sheet thrown over it was a little more unusual AFAIK. (Now I wonder if any former alums of the station I'm talking about will recognize that bit o' trivia)
 
If nature called, what song did you pick to take your personal break? Long version of "American Pie" comes to mind.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom