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WSB's top-of-the-hour tone

H

HurricaneRun

Guest
Does anyone know anything about the tone near the top of every hour? How long has it been there? Did they promote it? Do you like it or do you find it annoying?

HR
 
> Does anyone know anything about the tone near the top of
> every hour? How long has it been there? Did they promote
> it? Do you like it or do you find it annoying?
>
> HR

I remember Bobby Harper talking about it one morning, and then he proceeded to pretend that he was reading the instruction manual on how to turn it on. So it's been there 15 or so years I'd say.

BTW, that tone is accurate to-the-second. It's synchronized by the US Atomic Clock.

It's such a part of WSB that I never really notice it anymore.
 
> > Does anyone know anything about the tone near the top of
> > every hour? How long has it been there? Did they promote
>
> > it? Do you like it or do you find it annoying?
> >
> > HR
>
> I remember Bobby Harper talking about it one morning, and
> then he proceeded to pretend that he was reading the
> instruction manual on how to turn it on. So it's been there
> 15 or so years I'd say.
>
> BTW, that tone is accurate to-the-second. It's synchronized
> by the US Atomic Clock.
>
> It's such a part of WSB that I never really notice it
> anymore.
>

I like it. Kind of a background confirmation of the time. For a while it was very loud but is now back at its orginal level.
 
I remember it growing up in the Atlanta in the 1970's and 80's. Its been there forever.

> Does anyone know anything about the tone near the top of
> every hour? How long has it been there? Did they promote
> it? Do you like it or do you find it annoying?
>
> HR
>
 
> > > Does anyone know anything about the tone near the top of
>
> > > every hour? How long has it been there? Did they
> promote
> >
> > > it? Do you like it or do you find it annoying?
> > >
> > > HR
> >
> > I remember Bobby Harper talking about it one morning, and
> > then he proceeded to pretend that he was reading the
> > instruction manual on how to turn it on. So it's been
> there
> > 15 or so years I'd say.
> >
> > BTW, that tone is accurate to-the-second. It's
> synchronized
> > by the US Atomic Clock.
> >
> > It's such a part of WSB that I never really notice it
> > anymore.
> >
>
> I like it. Kind of a background confirmation of the time.
> For a while it was very loud but is now back at its orginal
> level.
>
I noticed it years ago too and found it odd on a station like WSB-am. Now, I kind of look for it as a way of confirming that I'm getting "up to date" info. Weird huh? I don't mind it. I think it lets the anchors know, ":07 seconds to go?... wrap it up... "
 
I was production director and on air host in the late 80's. That's when Bob Neil had the engineers design a box for the tone. It was a replacement for the old "top of the hour" network tone when WSB dropped the 'traditional" network news in favor of local news talk. Ron and Dave the enginners did a fine job coordinating the tone generator with WWV.
 
> > > > Does anyone know anything about the tone near the top
> of
> >
> > > > every hour? How long has it been there? Did they
> > promote
> > >
> > > > it? Do you like it or do you find it annoying?
> > > >
> > > > HR
> > >
I hate it. Every time I hear it I check my watch and car clock and realize I'm always out of sync.
Maybe that's why I work in radio...........
 
WSB used to be tight with the exit or commercial to co-inside with the tone. The commercial would end, and then the tone would occur, and then the Jeff Davis intro for the news. However, lately, it seems they start the news intro early during or very late after the tone. Are they getting lazy? Are the talk show hosts or board operators missing the queues? Also, is the 7 second delay built in to the tone?
 
> I was production director and on air host in the late 80's.
> That's when Bob Neil had the engineers design a box for the
> tone. It was a replacement for the old "top of the hour"
> network tone when WSB dropped the 'traditional" network news
> in favor of local news talk. Ron and Dave the enginners
> did a fine job coordinating the tone generator with WWV.
>

I like the tone because it reminds me that WSB is one of the great historic stations in the U.S. I'm guessing top-of-the-hour tones were commonplace in the 40's and 50's.
 
> I remember it growing up in the Atlanta in the 1970's and
> 80's. Its been there forever.

In the 60s and early 70s, the TOH tone was part of NBC Radio News that used to air on WSB. At some point in the 70s they switched to ABC Radio (I think about the same time Channel 2 changed from NBC to ABC, but my memory is hazy). I forget when they dumped ABC.

The coolest tone is the CBS Radio tone that preceeds their TOH news. It's sounds so official.

LF
 
> WSB used to be tight with the exit or commercial to
> co-inside with the tone. The commercial would end, and then
> the tone would occur, and then the Jeff Davis intro for the
> news. However, lately, it seems they start the news intro
> early during or very late after the tone. Are they getting
> lazy? Are the talk show hosts or board operators missing
> the queues? Also, is the 7 second delay built in to the
> tone?
>
I like it too. WSM in Nashville used to run a tone every 15 minutes. This could have been part of making sure their remote control system was in sync.

On WSB dropping NBC. I remember when it happened. Some time in the early 80s. Mike Faherty was the GM. Mike was the guy who dropped beautiful music on the FM and went AC. He also created a combo buy for WSB AM and FM. You could buy one station but the rate was just a little less.

It was still a big deal to be an NBC Radio Network affiliate when WSB dropped NBC...I think Wsbee was one of the charter affiliates back from 1927 and is said to be the orginator of the NBC tones. I was told it was done to get Paul Harvey on WSB but it didn't last long. In fact, if my memory serves me correctly, Paul Harvey was on WSB for just a few months.

Another big change back during that time era was WMAZ in Macon dropped CBS to pick up ABC. CBS was paying WMAZ a few thousand per month to air their news and when they dropped it, it was a blow to CBS which had WMAZ as an affiliate for a long long time.

Now, NBC Radio is no more..Mutual is gone. ABC Information is ok and CBS is still there. I guess I think CBS has the best top of the hour newscast but it's not what it used to be. The big problem is so few major market stations air top of the hour network news any more and that kills the network revenue.

When Paul Harvey dies, ABC Radio News may be relegated to the has beens of braodcasting too...
 
> > The coolest tone is the CBS Radio tone that preceeds their
> > TOH news. It's sounds so official.
>
> I prefer BBC radio's pips.

When coming from a local break approaching the TOH, there's no need to air all the "pips" from the BBC. The last "pip" is a full length beep, which when aired alone serves as a TOH tone.
 
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