Didn't know whether to put this here or in the Philadelphia forum, since it's relevant to both topics. Anybody want to hear what WBEB sounded like in its golden age? Here you go.
WDVR-FM (WBEB) 101.1 Philadelphia Aircheck UNSCOPED - 1973 June 14 (second transfer) : WDVR-FM 101.1 Philadelphia : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
This is a new transfer that I did a couple of months ago. The old one from 2010 is still up, but deprecated (it's really a mess to listen to). The tape was a sodding b...h to work with. Because the backcoating has failed, the emulsion side is sticky so it "squeaks" in a few spots and you can hear it in the transfer. Unfortunately the film base is also extremely thin so applying Nu Finish or Filmguard without stretching or breaking it is a pipe dream at best. Fortunately the combination of an high-end deck, with modern software-based EQ correction and noise reduction really helped deal with Grandad's low-pass EQ preference and the high-frequency tape hiss that got exaggerated* when doing treble correction, and now it really shines. You can go to "SHOW ALL" and compare it to the 2010 MP2 version, which IIRC I just kind of half-assed the EQ in Nero Wave Edit. Oh well. I was still new to this stuff then.
[ * Tape is a 2400' (0.75 mil) Sony PR-150 ferric; being a straight ferric emulsion running at 3 3/4 in/s, it has an inherently high noise floor compared with newer technologies like superferrics, which came along later in the 70s. ]
I strongly recommend downloading the PCM version ("WAVE" option) and listening to it locally instead of streaming the lossy MP3 version. Although I did make an effort to get the MP3 sounding as good as possible (320Kb/s discrete stereo CBR @ 44100 Hz, with the loosest psych model in LAME 3.99.5) it was still prepared using a lossy codec, therefore it is really only stutable for previewing rather than serious listening.
As of this post, this is the longest and most complete WDVR aircheck I'm aware of. Don't know why, but I have yet to encounter any other WDVR airchecks of any significant length. I'm sure there are quite a few "out there", hiding on old, dusty, deteriorating tapes that people just haven't gotten round to transferring and uploading yet. Anyways, enjoy this extremely rare piece of radio history.
WDVR-FM (WBEB) 101.1 Philadelphia Aircheck UNSCOPED - 1973 June 14 (second transfer) : WDVR-FM 101.1 Philadelphia : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
This is a new transfer that I did a couple of months ago. The old one from 2010 is still up, but deprecated (it's really a mess to listen to). The tape was a sodding b...h to work with. Because the backcoating has failed, the emulsion side is sticky so it "squeaks" in a few spots and you can hear it in the transfer. Unfortunately the film base is also extremely thin so applying Nu Finish or Filmguard without stretching or breaking it is a pipe dream at best. Fortunately the combination of an high-end deck, with modern software-based EQ correction and noise reduction really helped deal with Grandad's low-pass EQ preference and the high-frequency tape hiss that got exaggerated* when doing treble correction, and now it really shines. You can go to "SHOW ALL" and compare it to the 2010 MP2 version, which IIRC I just kind of half-assed the EQ in Nero Wave Edit. Oh well. I was still new to this stuff then.
[ * Tape is a 2400' (0.75 mil) Sony PR-150 ferric; being a straight ferric emulsion running at 3 3/4 in/s, it has an inherently high noise floor compared with newer technologies like superferrics, which came along later in the 70s. ]
I strongly recommend downloading the PCM version ("WAVE" option) and listening to it locally instead of streaming the lossy MP3 version. Although I did make an effort to get the MP3 sounding as good as possible (320Kb/s discrete stereo CBR @ 44100 Hz, with the loosest psych model in LAME 3.99.5) it was still prepared using a lossy codec, therefore it is really only stutable for previewing rather than serious listening.
As of this post, this is the longest and most complete WDVR aircheck I'm aware of. Don't know why, but I have yet to encounter any other WDVR airchecks of any significant length. I'm sure there are quite a few "out there", hiding on old, dusty, deteriorating tapes that people just haven't gotten round to transferring and uploading yet. Anyways, enjoy this extremely rare piece of radio history.
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