Why does WINS 1010 AM still use "The Typewriter background Sounds" ?

[uncamark]

I think the tele-type sound effects in the background work great for telling everyone "This is an All-News Station!" It was used by all the former Group W (Westinghouse) All-News stations: WINS NYC, KFWB LA, WMAQ Chicago and KYW Philadelphia. If KFWB hadn't run into ratings problems and been switched to News-Talk, I'd bet they'd still be using tele-type SFX as an All-News station. Same for WMAQ, which is now Sports WSCR.

WMAQ dropped the teletype during the first Gulf War, when they decided to loosen up the clocks from the old Group W standards and emphasize their CNN affiliation. Surprisingly, WBBM also dropped the teletype (which was always at a lower level) at about the same time.

 

[Ai4i]

How can anything be at a lower level, the way AM (and FM) stations process sound.

 

[avtosalon]

WMAQ dropped the teletype during the first Gulf War, when they decided to loosen up the clocks from the old Group W standards and emphasize their CNN affiliation. Surprisingly, WBBM also dropped the teletype (which was always at a lower level) at about the same time.

I remember that WBBM's teletype was louder in the 70's. I don't remember the exact year, but WBBM got rid of the teletype sound effect sometime in the 90's.

I was hoping that the new FM station, WWWN would use a teletype sound but that didn't happen. But I noticed the processing on WWWN has some reverb.

 

[WPHA]

How can anything be at a lower level, the way AM (and FM) stations process sound.

As an Engineer, I can address this one. It's not difficult at all!

Depending upon the audio processor, some of them have a separate input that bypasses all of the processing, so that a fixed-level signal can be fed to the transmitter. The main purpose of this being to get the EAS audio signal through, meeting the FCC Regs for 80% minimum modulation. However, this input could also be used to feed the low-level TTY SFX. It would most likely be gated by the live mics, so it doesn't run during spots or recorded/live "actuality" feeds. It would also be gated by the EAS box itself, naturally.

Agreed Gregg. Moreover, in a radio era where 'staging' is a long-lost art, the teletype noise remains a grinning old wise uncle. In an era when one feature or element after another has been dropped from supposedly mass-appeal stations .... time, [lucid] (LOCAL?) weather, sports, personality, decent jingles ..... we need more grinning, wise old uncles around.

Sadly, most of those wise old Uncles of Radio aren't grinning. They are weeping, quietly, in the corner amidst the cobweb-covered things you listed, above. :'(

Staging... "Theater of the Mind". Sadly, it's a lost art, as is PERSONALITY radio. VT'ed, dumbed-down jocks, liner cards, etc, all have been used to the point of utter listener boredom.

 

[Ai4i]

Yes WPHA, don't know how many stations actually go to the trouble, but this would have the added benefit of a brighter, "less squished" TTY sound.
Unlike the EAS generator, we would inject the TTY sound after most of the processing but ahead of a final peak limiter.

 

[johnnyu]

It doesn't bother me.

 

[WPHA]

Yes WPHA, don't know how many stations actually go to the trouble, but this would have the added benefit of a brighter, "less squished" TTY sound.
Unlike the EAS generator, we would inject the TTY sound after most of the processing but ahead of a final peak limiter.

Exactly! If I were going to set up such a system, this is how I would do it. Maximize the quality and the clarity!

When I hooked up WFIF's EAS box, this was the method I used. It's relay interrupted the PRG audio into the processor, and its own audio was fed into that separate non-processed port. With the digital tones set at 90% modulation, to ensure compliance at all times, all other EAS audio was fine.

 

[occsafmedic]

It iconic. They stopped it for a short time in the 90's-- ratings plummeted.

 

[radioman148]

It iconic. They stopped it for a short time in the 90's-- ratings plummeted.

There's your answer.

 

[Jay Walker]

duplicate

 

[Macker]

The real question is: is this a real post or another post by a "radio consultant"? Merlin Media and Randy Michaels have already been caught hiring a radio consultant to post on here. The dummy signed up with his radio consulting email address. (See thread praising FM News 101.9.

 

[badjef]

The real question is: is this a real post or another post by a "radio consultant"? Merlin Media and Randy Michaels have already been caught hiring a radio consultant to post on here. The dummy signed up with his radio consulting email address. (See thread praising FM News 101.9.

Didn't work on me. I didn't even read the thread.

And I'm interested in New York.

Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!

 

[radioman148]

The real question is: is this a real post or another post by a "radio consultant"? Merlin Media and Randy Michaels have already been caught hiring a radio consultant to post on here. The dummy signed up with his radio consulting email address. (See thread praising FM News 101.9.

The guy did the same thing on the Chicago board. It was so obvious.

 

[badjef]

The real question is: is this a real post or another post by a "radio consultant"? Merlin Media and Randy Michaels have already been caught hiring a radio consultant to post on here. The dummy signed up with his radio consulting email address. (See thread praising FM News 101.9.

The guy did the same thing on the Chicago board. It was so obvious.

Now, that's a troll!

Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!

 

[radioman148]

The real question is: is this a real post or another post by a "radio consultant"? Merlin Media and Randy Michaels have already been caught hiring a radio consultant to post on here. The dummy signed up with his radio consulting email address. (See thread praising FM News 101.9.

The guy did the same thing on the Chicago board. It was so obvious.

Now, that's a troll!

Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!

Definitely!

 

[wbhist]

I don't know if this was mentioned here or elsewhere, but since at least the late 1980's 1010 WINS, for their teletype sound, looped a professionally-recorded TTY SFX from a sound-effects library (I have had access to this library and the sound effect in question, but am keeping its origin a trade secret). Their legend of using a homemade recording of teletypes running in the background would have been applicable before then, as on a 1978 clip of a drive-time 'cast from the late Stan Z. Burns, as linked on this page.

 

[butchfm]

Back to the question, why the ticker?

First off, last week during the storm I lost power, my back up radio needed to be tuned in...so I ran up and down dial, that had a lot of chater and when I heard the ticker I knew i had WINS..
Last night, Sunday, CBS had a two hour 9/11 special at 8pm, hosted by Bobby D..When you heard news from radio stations telling what was going on... you heard the news ticker and knew it was WINS.....And by the way the call letters[WINS] were never mentioned in any of the clips they played...
I was in high school when WINS went from top 40 to all news....I think some of you will remember when they went all news, it went from
1010WINS to W.I.N.S. AND STAN Z. BURNS for a short time was just STAN BURNS....WINS ticker is part of the history of New York, a land mark, if you will, for the ears.

 

[badjef]

So, then if it works for WINS, should every news station have the teletype sound because people are too unaware when they are listening to a news report?

Are the people in New York that oblivious that they need the sound because they can't figure out when they are listening to NEWS?

Anybody who thinks radio programming is easy, these are the thin lines the guys making the "big bucks" have to walk, everyday.

Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!

 

[wbhist]

So, then if it works for WINS, should every news station have the teletype sound because people are too unaware when they are listening to a news report?

A few stations across the country still use teletype sound effects - namely its sister station KYW Newsradio 1060 in Philadelphia. (Its TTY SFX, however, sounds like a Model 14ROTR piped through a phone line - but that SFX, they've used for years, so at least in that sense their sound is distinctive.)

 

[wbhist]

I was in high school when WINS went from top 40 to all news....I think some of you will remember when they went all news, it went from 1010WINS to W.I.N.S. AND STAN Z. BURNS for a short time was just STAN BURNS....WINS ticker is part of the history of New York, a land mark, if you will, for the ears.

They didn't resume the "Ten-Ten Wins" branding until 1978 (probably as a tie-in to their "New York WINS" slogan) . . . though in the case of Mr. Burns, he reinstated the "Z" to his air name in or about 1975.

Anyone remember when, towards the end of the 1970's and at the onset of the '80's, WINS referred to themselves on-air as "1010 WINS News Radio" - thus forcing WCBS, for a few years, to call themselves "All-News 88"?