Re: [ARSCLIST] "Aircheck" history

[David Lennick <dlennick@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Rod Stephens wrote:

> Hi Tom,
>
> Here's a little more info on "aircheck" from this web site:
> http://www.oldradio.com/current/bc_1sts.htm
>
> > ... AIRCHECK
> >
> >     * According to some reports, the oldest existing aircheck dates to
> >       the Armistice Day broadcast, November 10, 1923.
> >     * Some WEAF broadcasts of the NY Philharmonic are said to predate
> >       that slightly.
> >

Most of the NY Philharmonic aircheck discs I transferred were from December
1923 (3rd, 11th and 17th) and January and April 1924, but there was one disc of
unknown provenance and an unidentified orchestra (not the Philharmonic,
according to Steve Smolian) playing the Espana Rhapsody and dated July 7, 1923.
These were recordings Western Electric was making in its experiments to develop
electrical recording..some of them sound excellent, by the way, with more
presence and more frequency range than the early commercial discs made by
Victor and Columbia (which had to be "safe" so as not to blast or wear out on
the players of the day).

dl

>
>
> Rod Stephens
>
> Tom Fine wrote:
>
> > What is the genesis of the term "aircheck" and how did it come to mean
> > "off-air recording", or did it mean something different at another time?
> >
> > -- Tom Fine
> >