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Re: [ARSCLIST] FM broadcasting way back when
Back in the early 50s we had two local stations that were total opposites...
KCBH was owned by George CRawford who owned a record and up scale hi fi store in Beverly Hills Calif. He used his FM station to show off hi-fi equipment in his showroom. On sunday afternoons he pushed stereo fm all way with 15 ips pipe organ tapes made in the Lorin Whitney studios in Glendale Calif. Whitney had a Robert Morton theatre pipe organ inside a concrete block building which you could almost hear through the solid walls.... Crawford didnt use any limiters or processing except for the transmitter preemphisis... he would patch the output of the Ampex tape deck to the exciter input and let it rip......
The other extreme was KUTE with studio, transmitter, record room and toilet in a single room shack on top of Flint peak in Glendale Calif and ohh yes the window air conditioner and at times could hear the busy telephone tone when they would take phone off hook during announcements.
Talk about studio ambiance !!!!! mix all the fans transmitter hummm ac and a red light not to flush toilet when it was on.
Amazing how FM operated in early days. I sure miss them. Today with the computer generated play lists and down to split second bang bang band rapid fire production we are bombarded with today the free spirit has been muzzled ....such progress.
dnward
--- On Mon, 10/6/08, Michael H. Gray <mhgray@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> From: Michael H. Gray <mhgray@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] FM reception way back when
> To: ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Date: Monday, October 6, 2008, 10:37 AM
> Lou Judson wrote:
>
> > Being ten miles from Sab Francisco, there are some
> great sounding
> > stations here - all my life "Broadcast
> Quality" meant *almost* better
> > than playing records...
> >
> > But note that Bob says "in mono" which has
> stunningly low noise floor
> > with good signal. Stereo FM can be a bit like MP3s
> today, and airing
> > MP3s on stereo FM is the lower standard for most
> commercial radio today.
> >
> > I have been restoring some broadcast tapes from KMPX
> and KSAN from
> > the 60s and 70s and the sound of their studios when
> they open the mic
> > is like no other noise I've heard... Can't
> hear their breathing but
> > the AC is powerful...
> >
> > <L>
> > Lou Judson • Intuitive Audio
> > 415-883-2689
> >
> >
> > On Oct 6, 2008, at 8:48 AM, Michael Shoshani wrote:
> >
> >> Bob Olhsson wrote:
> >>
> >>> Some of the most stunningly beautiful audio I
> ever heard was
> >>> Chicago's WFMT
> >>> picked up in mono around 1965 from my college
> dorm room in Olivet
> >>> Michigan.
> >>> (Top notch mono hi fi gear was available
> really cheap at that
> >>> time.) I had
> >>> no idea what FM was capable of before I heard
> that station.
> >>
> >>
> >> WFMT still sounds well today, as does the
> "news/public affairs/Wait
> >> Wait Don't Tell Me" public radio station
> WBEZ. Catch either station
> >> on something like a mid-to-late 1950s Telefunken
> Opus and you can
> >> feel the announcers breathe. The late WNIB,
> Chicago's other
> >> classical music station until the founder/owners
> retired and sold
> >> the station, also had very good audio.
> >>
> >> Especially with good hi-fi gear, it still sounds
> as though most
> >> classical and jazz stations (old-fashioned jazz,
> not "smooth jazz")
> >> employ much less noticeable compression and
> limiting than do the
> >> hotter-signal pop stations. Just as with many FM
> stations of yore,
> >> you still get a very slight hum of "room
> tone" on these stations
> >> when the announcers get potted up; for me, that
> room tone WAS the
> >> sound of FM when I was a lad. Gave it depth and
> made the signal
> >> breathe, but I can't explain why....it's
> intangible, yet palpable.
> >>
> >> Michael Shoshani
> >> Chicago
> >>
> >
> KSFR and KPEN in the late 50s - early 60s, but before
> stereo, also had
> great signals in the Bay Area - I was green with envy when
> I saw what
> KSFR had as studio equipment. And KPEN used to carry
> services from
> Grace Cathedral using their new C-37 Sony mikes. A great
> era, alas,
> gone forever.
>
> Mike Gray