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Re: [ARSCLIST] OTR online?
Robert Cham wrote:
All the networks started airing one-hour delayed programming for the
non-Daylight Saving Time stations after the war, and this led to ABC
(which had been NBC Blue before 1942) allowing Bing Crosby to
pre-record and edit Philco Radio Time in 1946.
After financing Alexander Pontiof's (SP?) development of the first
Ampex tape recorders from the Telefunken recorders brought back from
Germany after WW II. Crosby used to tell the story of how the
superior signal to noise ratio of tape was responsible for ABC's
decision. Similar stories of how Telefunken's development of tape
recording during WW II enabled the Germans to confuse the allied
bombing command about the whereabouts of Hitler at any given time abound.
Bob
This story is almost complete fiction. First of all, the tape machine
was developed and made by AEG not Telefunken. Two entirely different
companies.
Second, that Hitler story is laughable. Hitler would "be" where ever
the broadcast announcer said he was!!! Besides, Hitler was not making
many speeches during the war. The sound quality of distant radio
reception would mask any differences between a speech recorded on tape
and a speech recorded on disc. Steel tape recording on
Blatnerphone/Marconi-Stille machines was done by the BBC in England
since 1929, so there were other familiar ways to avoid surface noise.
The Philips-Miller mechanical recording-optical playback machine was in
common use in Europe before the war, and was capable of long continuous
quiet recordings of higher quality than the early tape recorder. And a
freshly recorded lacquer disc was very, very quiet and capable of
frequency response way beyond 10 KHz even in the 30s. There are so many
other reasons why that Hitler story is a joke but these should be
enough Those stories only "abound" because they get be repeated without
any research.
Lastly, the entire first season of Philco Radio Time was recorded and
edited on DISC. Tape was only used for mastering and editing starting
in the second season, and even then the tapes were dubbed to disc for
broadcast. The tapes were not directly aired until the final weeks of
the second season. Therefore the use of tape had absolutely nothing to
do with ABC's decision. The only part of the story that is true is that
Crosby put money into Ampex, but Jack Mullen had already gotten Ampex
working on developing improvements on the AEG Magnetophons he had
brought back. But ironically the first tape machines ABC bought were
Stancil-Hoffman.
Mike Biel mbiel@xxxxxxxxx