• 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

The Life & Death Of The Compact Disc.

S

Scooter Lesley

Guest
The Life & Death of The Compact Disc,
A Multi-Part Posting from Scooter Lesley, The Pontiff of Per-ruzal Pondering, and Pounding Pontification;
POST #1:
I saw my first "Compact Disc" sometime in the early 80's, while I was still at WANS-FM. The CBS/Columbia label rep, John Faggott (Stop! That was his last name.)...on the business card too)...came to to visit, and pimp whatever records, that week.
He also brought us what he coined as a "Rev-vel-looosion" for the music industry. Our first two CD's were "Syncronisity", and "Frontiers". I thought that they were drink coasters...part record, part mirror, and ya set a drink on it, while you are on the air. "No,...there's music on there!"...took one outta the case, and flung it across the room. See,...and they won't scratch.
About two weeks later, they sent us a (Sony) rack mount player, and Grum installed the thing, so we could start airplay via
"Compact Lazer Disc". I remember it well, but even that day, I felt that something was not exactly right....Hmmmmmmmmm???
 
POST #1a:
Does anybody know how to turn that Underline--ing thing off?????????????????????? Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Scooter Lesley said:
POST #1a:
Does anybody know how to turn that Underline--ing thing off?????????????????????? Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Click to expand...

Just take that computer thingy and fling it across the room.
 
Does anybody know how to turn that Underline--ing thing off? Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Click to expand...
Look on your post reply when you go to reply to someone, right under the window for the message icon you will see a B I U. If the U is on turn it off, try clicking it a few times.
 
POST #2:
OK,...the story continues, but don't push me, I'll underline every damn word that I type...
When we moved into the new building, WANS-FM had went from all Cart, and all of our ten CD's...back to vinyl, and some CD airplay, but no one seemed to care. Then came the tray in/out models...and the change-over was on its way. To me, the only cool element was no cue burn! In 1985, prerecorded "Compact Disc" titles (from the labels) were available, but you had to be both Rich, and Patient...for it was mail-order only. By the time I took a job (11/86) at WCKN, they were between $25-to-$33 dollars apiece, plus shipping. One of the ten or so stockholders at the station once bragged about owning nearly thirty of them, as he rocked back on the heels of his penny loafers. I knew that the price would slowly fall, but still...I still couldn't finish my puzzle...as to something just ain't right. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm???????
 
Scooter Lesley said:
POST #2:
When we moved into the new building, WANS-FM had went from all Cart, and all of our ten CD's...back to vinyl, and some CD airplay, but no one seemed to care.
Click to expand...

For the life of me, I have no idea to the meaning of what you have written.
 
It helps if you were present the day dirt was invented/created. The older brain knows how to look through the crust on these older memories and see the what used to be a living organism what was the origin of these mysterious descriptions of life as we marched through it.

(Congratulations on getting the underline under control. There is nothing more disgusting that another old codger running around in public with his underline hanging out.
 
Goat Rodeo Cowboy said:
(Congratulations on getting the underline under control. There is nothing more disgusting that another old codger running around in public with his underline hanging out.
Click to expand...

I don't know, man...all the ladies LOVE it when my underline is hanging out. It's liberating.
 
POST #3:
By the time we reached the Spring of '87, WCKN...THE POWER FM, we were all CD, with the exception of a dozen hard to find songs on cart...that had not been released on the "New Thing". The labels were pushing their agenda so hard...we had 3-closets full of giveaways. That Summer (Summer book) we dethroned the might WANS for the first time. August 14th, was my benefit concert for Woodruff High School, that had nearly burnt down. I had booked REO Speedwagon to play for free...with the proceeds going to the High School. Back stage, the band members were autographing both LP's, and CD's. Kevin Cronin stated to me that he didn't like it because it was too small. The size didn't bother me, but LP's sometimes had extras...posters, stickers, t-shirt offers.....Where are you going to put it? Still,...even after Cronin's disapproval, I couldn't place my worry or concern about the format.......???????????????
 
I remember when we first had a rep drop by the Z-100 studios in Kannapolis, NC, about 1985 or early '86, they, too, claimed that these new "Compact Laser Discs" were indestructible, non-scratchable, etc., he even said a jock could drop one on the floor, roll over it with the wheel of an office chair, and it would still play. Some believed him, I was skeptical, but, then again, I have always been a vinyl fan.
We never did play CD's at Z-100, but when we switched it to WRFX, The Fox, while the studios were still in Kannapolis, I think we had a total of about twenty CD's in 1986 that we played directly from that medium, everything else I dubbed from record to cart for air play.
The only radio station I ever worked at that played 100% CD's all the time was in 1991 at KLRZ in New Orleans, it was Z-100 also, but we had those damned Sony Juke Boxes, GAWD they screwed up and stopped or hung up at the oddest hours of the night while unattended, ALWAYS.
WROQ, 95.1 in Charlotte had those Technics top-loading CD players, and they would screw up when the copper contact on the lid worked loose, and it would ALWAYS eventually work loose.
Hail, hail the cart machine and vinyl!!!! But praise be to digital hard drive...
 
I hear ya, Ric. How about those 99 dollar specials from Circuit City? In the early 90s at Z93 in Dillow (when we simulcasted the WRCQ morning show on the Z), I remember we had to fire them directly with the CD player's "play" button...no remote switch. First time I did it, my index finger sunk into the player up to my second knuckle. I gotta say, though, the CD fired.
 
I remember when I was in college hearing radio DJs talk about the CD being the next big thing and acting like it was a big deal that the song was on a CD.

I still have yet to upgrade to CDs. My car has a cassette player, though that's better than the one I just got rid of which only had a radio and by the end even that didn't work.

Hey, wait a minute ...
 
Post #4:
Well,...I'd like to first thank...The Think Tank/Memory Machine...for kickin'-in with some brillant posts. Personally, I could listen to old Radio stories all day. I especially agree with THATWASRADIO..., and I might be a little basis as his career timeline in the business almost parallels mine. Most of the Posters have experienced the same. The only sad thing is that we all still have a little something in the tank, but Corp Radio won't hire us. There were alotta failed formats...the El-Cassette was an interesting one. I thoroghly believed that the MD...Mini-Disc was the next thing, but since the playing surface was protected by the incapsulation, it didn't really have a dead end. I believe that it was "Too Good", and the recording industry couldn't afford to have it spread. In Japan, some of their autos had the option of an in-dash MD, and I did see a desk-top unit, but that was also Japanese. Truthfully, I will always be a Vinyl Mizzer, and with the new 180gram, virgin vinyl pressings, it Behoooooooves one to own at least one turntable. The new LP's have a Jaw-droppingly Ear-gazmic sound, that has to be heard...to be believed!!
So,...I am of the...Behoveled! To continue our fine discussion, I'll toss this out: If I said..."CD Rot"...would you know what I mean, and if so, can you share your thoughts?
 
Well,...X Man,...welcome to the Think Tank. We all certainly don't mind if you Cometh,
and we all appreciate your honesty, as you Leave-ith.
 
Ssummers said:
How about those 99 dollar specials from Circuit City?I remember we had to fire them directly with the CD player's "play" button...no remote switch...
Click to expand...

Things got a lot more sane when the Denon CD players came out, the ones that took the special cases where the whole case went into the machines. They could even remote-start from the board. But they were finicky, every one had its own personality, and you had to have someone who was a Denon guru in engineering to keep them properly aligned. I also remember the little sliding doors on the bottom of the CD cases would lose their springs, which would jam the case in the machine, and some cheap stations would only buy two players. Thanks goodness for PSAs on 3-x-5 cards!

I also remember the Studer/Revox rack-mount players that were huge, and took up about 7 inches of rack space each.

CDs did make format changes much easier. Instead of having part-timers burning the midnight oil to record hundreds of carts for the sister-station's format change, you could just order a box of CDs from Century 21, and be on the air with the new format as soon as the box was opened. The bad news - a discreet phone call from the part-timers at your sister station would sometimes be the only thing standing between you and being totally blind-sided.

Does anyone remember the goofy EQ on the first CDs? The highs were so overboosted you almost had to EQ them and put them on carts.

I also remember the really hip stations would announce when the next song was from compact disc, even if it was put on cart from that disc. And Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours" CD was made in a hurry by just playing the LP straight onto a CD, and the CD included a skip!
 
Post #5:
First off, I'd like to thank Think Tank member, Paul Warren for a brillant post. Secondly, I was a bit surprised that no one replied, when I mentioned "CD Rot". To clarify, and bare witness, I notice a strange marbling appearance on the (bottom) playing survice of discs that I had purchased 10-15 years earlier. Then, later, "Pinholes", that you could see light through. Fellow collector, and Beatles expert, Mike, said that he had one that would produce small brown droplets on the play side. These were sticky, and he compared them to pancake surup. Even though the disc was kept in a controled enviroment, and cleaned periodially, the drops would return. Later, where this reocurred, Pinholes appeared. Where there is a Pinhole, there is no foil, and thus, no encoded music. The labels told us all that they were archival. Now, what do you think, and are they liable for replacement??
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom