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You know you're getting old when...

You punk kids. When I was young, you had to know morris code to be on the radio. There was no AM/FM... there was just AM, and we liked it! And if you wanted stereo, you added a reverb unit and an extra speaker. Your kilo-hertz were kilo-CYCLES, cause that's what they were! Dee-jays were stars, and could cuddle dozens of women ANY NIGHT OF THE WEEK! And we had both kinds of music: COUNTRY AND WESTERN! There was none of this clatterty-bang rock and roll nonsense. Our singers could SING! And what happened to accordions, organs and harmonicas? Now you got all these drum machines, synthesizers, and electronic mish-mash... Bah!
Now get off my lawn...whippersnappers!
 
And another thing... we didn't need all this CD-DVD HD MP3 HETERODYNE stuff. Give me a Quaker Oats box, a hundred feet of wire, a selenium crystal and a cats whisker, and I could get you KDKA, KNBR, WCFL and WLW, without having to plug into a wall socket or use up a battery! We didn't roll off at 5k, we listened to every lightning strike, light ballast and car ignition within a hundred miles!
It added character, which is something you young punks can't even spell!
I thought I told you to get off my lawn!
 
And my pa told me he remembers when WLW fired up that half-million watt flamethrower, why, half the lights within two miles would come on all by themselves and the washing machine would-a start hucklebuckin' all over the basement floor from the power surge...

Damn wonder we wuzzin't kilt.

Now, you kids get outta my yard and take that mutt with you! I'm calling the cops....
 
You guys are starting to make me feel old...38 in Dec.

I have never really had a reaction to any birthday besides 16, 18 & 21 (for the obvious reasons), but I recently realized I am just around the corner from 40...that hit hard!
 
GRAYWOLF said:
You guys are starting to make me feel old...38 in Dec.

I have never really had a reaction to any birthday besides 16, 18 & 21 (for the obvious reasons), but I recently realized I am just around the corner from 40...that hit hard!
Click to expand...

Yeah... pretty soon a lot of us will become GRUMPY OLD MEN!!! :eek:

OUCH! :(

R
 
And here's another one... You know you're getting old if you know what any of this stuff is:

Wire Recorder
Cathode Ray Tube
Dictaphone
All forms of analog audio / videotape (i.e. cassette, microcassette, 8 Tracks, 3/4 U-matic, Betamax, etc...)
The terms Ampex, BASF, Audiopak, Fidelipak, Scotchcart, Bias Callibration, Head Allignment all have meaning
The terms Audi Cord, ITC/Delta, Broadcast Electronics, Otari, Scully also have meaning.

And you know you are REALLY old if you can remember your father's analog reel to reel deck was made by Revere.

R
 
Wow..."Grantchester" for the win! Best Geezerrant Evar!

While I can't compete with that, I'll submit that I brought my trusty K&E Radio Engineer's slide rule with me when I recently took my General amateur radio license test.

(I'll be 42 next month. You kids get off the dirt where my lawn used to be!)
 
And by golly, I got a 50 cents an hour raise after I got my 1st class license.
Tight board, will relocate.

Now slow down! You kids drive too fast!
 
Hey I'm just glad KLUV finally started playing a stereo version of "Fun Fun Fun". Nice to hear it unleashed and alive sounding. Can "I Saw Her Again" be next? Hopefully they toss those awful mono versions of "Get Off My Cloud" and "Satisfaction".
 
Robert Bass said:
You know you're getting old if you know what any of this stuff is:

All forms of analog audio / videotape (i.e. cassette, microcassette, 8 Tracks, 3/4 U-matic, Betamax, etc...)
The terms Ampex, BASF, Audiopak, Fidelipak, Scotchcart, Bias Callibration, Head Allignment all have meaning
The terms Audi Cord, ITC/Delta, Broadcast Electronics, Otari, Scully also have meaning.
Click to expand...

Robert, you brought a tear to my eye. ;)

Ah yes, the glory days of round pots on control boards, those
god awful ancient turntables that you had to get the motor
spinning just to get it up to speed to PLAY the darn record!
The many times when it just wouldn't get up to speed in time, and
that 45 would sound like 16 speed. Try it on Charlie Daniels "Devil
Went Down to Georgia" It really DID sound satanic.

Ah, yes, ITC/Delta cart machines. My favorite. Why? The only
reason....They were cool! Big black boxes with cool flashing lights
(and those secondary and tiertiary tones) and Scotchcarts baby!

The days when metal cassette tape was cool, because it was
professional "broadcast quality..... ;D

Pacific Recorders BMX boards...God I loved 'em, and still do.
The prod boards blew my mind the first station I had to work
on one. Finally, I figured all the buttons out, and I was in techno
nerdy jock heaven.

Eventide Harmonizers - David Stone wouldn't stand a chance up
against these babies....The original "whaaaaaaa" machine....

Yamaha prod units....remember the days of sitting for hours
in the prod room just "playing" with the phaser and thinking
"this is awesome". I do.

Denon CD players - D50's I believe. EVERYBODY had the darn
things....and I loved them. Easy in, easy out. 20 seconds before
fadeout, and you could get that follow upo song cued up FAST!.

And lastly, the glory days of sitting for hours with the reel to reel,
tape, razor, and slice board, trying to make and produce that
brilliant :30 second spot or :10 promo. Those days are the reason
many of us are sporting gray hair in our late 30's.... ;D ;D ;D

Now we walk into a modern day radio studio, and all you have is
a 21 inch monitor with touchscreen, board, and a telephone.

Sorta' sad, and good, in a way.
 
Robert Bass said:
And here's another one... You know you're getting old if you know what any of this stuff is:

And you know you are REALLY old if you can remember your father's analog reel to reel deck was made by Revere.
Click to expand...

I know he HAD a reel-to-reel, but I have no idea what brand it was. He's still got recordings of me talking/singing at like 16 months or something.
*cringe*

And so far, y'all are older than me :p
*runs through everyone elses' lawn*
 
theshadow said:
And lastly, the glory days of sitting for hours with the reel to reel,
tape, razor, and slice board, trying to make and produce that
brilliant :30 second spot or :10 promo. Those days are the reason
many of us are sporting gray hair in our late 30's.... ;D ;D ;D

Now we walk into a modern day radio studio, and all you have is
a 21 inch monitor with touchscreen, board, and a telephone.
Click to expand...

What's really sad is when the damn kids today get ahold of those white and yellow grease pencils. ;D

R
 
You young guys crack me up. I would have loved to have had a Scully back in the day. Most of the stations I worked for had Revox, or worse, Magnacorders. One station had the Ampex 601, just back from the shop with new heads, and I must say it sounded pretty sweet. But the best ever was the Otari 5050. You never had to mark the tape, because the splice block and the head were the same distance from the end of the housing.
The big stations had the cart cues set to trigger the next cart. Stack up six carts, and you could go to the bathroom while your break ran and the next song started.
To qualify for my first on-air job I had to wind a :60 second cart, by measuring the length of the tape. It had to be tight enough, but not too tight, cleanly spliced, and all the graphite leads had to be in place...
I used to have a 'phasing' gimmick I did, by dubbing the spot on to cart, then playing it and the original back. By speeding up and slowing down the reel to reel, You could get that doppler phase shift effect. I never worked with a harmonizer.
Now, --- . - --- ..-. ..-. -- ...- .-.. .- .-- -.
And no, you can't have your ball back!
 
grant I may not be as old as you are, but I got to use some antiquated equipment at my first station. The board was a c. 1971 Autogram Twist Pot board.

The reel in the FM studio was an early 70's Revox model.

The AM was automated using a 3 carousel Schafer unit from the 70's. I even got to talk to the father of our automation unit, Dallas's own Earl Bullock, once when the machine was on the fritz.

I also got the joy of dealing with cue burn and slip cuing (although that was a tad difficult because the turntables were just barely in reach). Half a turn for a 33, 3/4 turn for a 45.

When I took FM transmitter readings I quite literally dialed up the transmitter. It was a rotary phone dial. Position 1 was the Filament On/Off, Position 2 was Plate Volts & Plate On/Off, Position 3 was Plate Amps, Position 4 was Forward Power, and Position 5 was Reflected Power.
 
Chick- Thanks, yes you are correct. Unfortunately, the eyes don't see typo's so well, at my advanced age.
Neal- You've never experienced the joy of one of those '70's era CCA boards... You push a button and the other button flies off and bounces behind the console.
One station had the old Western Electric board from the '40s... the thing had built in intercom for various studios. It also had an energy field around it that you could commune with.
Favorite was the Gates Ambassador/Diplomat series... durable, maintainable, straightforward.
I still have a couple hundred pounds of vinyl with 'cue birds' on many tracks.
And I'll go you one better on the dial up telemetry. one station had an engineer on duty, and you reached him by cranking the magneto phone!
Now excuse me, it's time for my Ben-Gay rubdown.
(Are you kids still on my lawn?)
 
Yeah Grant I love the Otari 5050! I saw one of those for the first time when I toured KEOM in the mid 80's, and fell in love with it instantly. I'm the proud owner of one, and still play with it from time to time. It needs some work though...

R
 
Robert-
Yeah, sometimes the brakes wouldn't engage, and you'd end up with your production flying off a spinning reel.
Now, an acetate disc cutter would never give you that problem. But then again, the acetate shavings were quite flammable...
Hey, any of you kids want to earn $2 dollars, by cutting my yard?
 
Robert Bass said:
CW said:
NealH said:
KLUV plays "The Power of Love" By Huey Lewis & The News and you were in junior high when it came out.
Click to expand...

HUH??? "Power of Love" on an OLDIES station?? Thats a little too close to present!!! Guess they cannot find anything good from the 70s to play (ouch! ;)
Click to expand...

That song is just over 25 years old, so it qualifies as an oldie. Especially since many oldies stations are evolving to 70's & 80's.

R
Click to expand...

Ehhh Classic Hits or even Classic Rock maybe....but OLDIES?? Naw,its still too young....or am I just denying my age?? ;)=
As long as they call themselves an Oldies station, I just cant buy it...Houston's oldie moldie KLDE changed to Classic Hits and yes, I could see the song on THAT station (if they would get rid of the early 60s now!)..They should have just gone with a Jack format but then CBS has that legally sewn up in the top markets
 
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