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Post by dbsteff on Aug 22, 2008 20:01:24 GMT -5
Hi....I worked at both WLRS-FM, as well as WXVW-AM back in 1967--1969. At that time, WLRS was the associated radio operation to a small broadcasting academy the "Louisville Radio School" from whence came the call letters W-L-R-S.
I recently submitted some old pics from those years to Joe Stamm at WLRS. He has posted them on the WLRS Web Page at the "Locals Only" -- "Old School" tabs.
A brief history of my time at the station is there as well.
At that time, WLRS, as well as WXVW in Jeffersonville, and WORX in Madison, were all owned and operated by a wonderful gentleman named Clarence Henson. He also owned and operated the Louisville Radio School.
Ancient History, I suppose. I also have pics taken at WXVW...but since the call sign is now defunct, I suppose no one would be interested in them .
Used to work with one guy named Tim Goodwin, who was a student at the school, have lost track of him over the years, in case you know him, I'd love to make contact with him again. He'd be in his late 50's by now. I also submitted some audio clips, but they haven't posted those on the web page, as yet
REGARDING WLRS pics.
In case you took the time to view the pics I submitted to WLRS, and which are now posted on their webpage, I thought you might like some detail regarding the equip in the pics:
The Reel-to-Reels were Magnecord 1022s.
The cart machine was a Sparta-Matic. The console was an RCA BC-9, as best I recall, the mics were Turner 510s......a very popular dynamic mic at the time due to it's presence peak. The turntables were Fairchild, the cartridges on the tone arns were Shure M-44-7.
The transmitter was an RCA BTF-10D....new at the time.(Not shown, obviously)
The studio shown in the pics, was located in suite 908 in the 800 Building.
I'm shown in one of the pics, standing below a WLRS poster and in front of a NAB plaque.
I'm also shown at the board, in the white polo shirt, cueing up an LP.
Tim Goodwin is shown in another pic, also at the board.We all change over the years, don't know if Tim is still as lithe as then.
The Girl shown, at the board, wasn't actually staff. She had come in from Scotland to visit one of the other Jocks, whom she was related to. We posed her to take the pic. She had the most delicious accent, wish we could have made her staff. She'd have been quite a hit.
WLRS, at that time was an affiliate of the Mutual Broadcasting System
On of my most vivid recollections was being on the air the night that Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated. Mutual had a reporter on scene.....it was quite horrific. I submitted a recording of a special done the next day by MBS to WLRS for their files. It includes the awful goings-on at the time of the assassination. I don't know if they'll post it to the webpage. It's rather long, about 30 minutes.
I also submitted a "Christmas Greeting" 1968, including the voices of Dick Brabant, myself Dan Steffen , Don Fugate, and Glen Behr.....the air staff at the time. It's only about 30 sec. I hope they'll post it.
Regards Dan
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Post by dbsteff on Aug 25, 2008 10:11:05 GMT -5
SIGN-ON ---1967 --- LOCKED OUT ---WLRS
John Q. said he wanted more stories regarding my time at WLRS…so:
You know from my earlier posts, that WLRS was initially the associated radio operation to The Louisville Radio School, and that is the origin of the call letters. Its initial location was at 1701 S. 3rd Street, in large, old ante-bellum style house. I assume, by now, that location has reverted back to a private residence….so please don’t disturb the current residents. The Google Satellite pic of the location (S.E. quadrant of that intersection) suggests that the original base of the tower might still exist there….its concrete pad, that is. But on with the story:
I had the sign on shift at this particular time at WLRS. At that time, WLRS was not a 24 hr. operation.
It was a brutally cold Louisville winter’s morning, on this particular occasion, Sunday Morning as I recall, when I showed up for sign on. The old RCA transmitter, in use at the time, was a cantankerous old thing and one had to allow extra warm up time for it before applying any modulation or the thing would shut itself down. So I had arrived with ample time for that little ritual. I was so happy when, later, we moved to the 800 Building. We had a brand new RCA BTF 10-D transmitter with no such quirks.
The sign off guy was supposed to leave the key for me in a designated hiding place, but it wasn’t there. I went into panic mode, immediately. I tried both the front door, which was the main entrance door to both the school and the station and the Lee St. side door, typically used to enter the station, to no avail. Both were locked.
I considered walking around the perimeter of the house looking for an unlocked window. I quickly decided that this would be most unwise. I didn’t want the neighbor to the immediate south to hear me out there crunching about in the iced-over grass trying to break into the studio and shoot me….or call Louisville’s finest to do it for him.
I decided that it would be best for me to be the one to call the police and ask for their assistance in my breaking and entering dilemma.
Remember, it was 1967…no cell phones.
I drove till I found a phone booth at a gas station, that was still closed for the night, and called the operator…remember 1967…no 911 service. She connected me with the Louisville P.D.. I explained my issue to the dispatcher, who sounded as if he thought my story unbelievable….after all who would simply leave the key to the station in a hiding place? Anyway, he promised to send a squad car, and told me to wait there at the gas station till they arrived.
After what seemed like an eternity, the squad car arrived. I was relieved, as I was afraid that the dispatcher thought my call a prank, and may not have dispatched anyone. I explained my problem to the two officers…they seemed equally incredulous, but finally followed me back to the House/ Station…I think they found it hard to believe that the location was a radio station, until they observed the tower in the back of the house. They double-checked and found the doors locked, as I had said.
We went around the house looking for an open window and found one at the actual studio. One of the officers shone his flashlight in to see the console and turntables, helped to open the window, and let me use his clasped hands as a footstool to get in. I nearly knocked over one of the two turntables as I essentially fell into the studio. The studio was dark, though my eyes had adjusted to the darkness outside; I still had to feel my way to find the light switch. Those old Fairchild Turntables could have knocked me out had one fallen over and landed on me. They had motors better suited for a washing machine, and were belt drive, the platter alone probably weighed 10 lbs…they were slow as heck to come to speed, so were a pain to cue, but at the time, they were state of the art, having very low wow and flutter figures.
Once I got the lights on, I ran to start the transmitter, flipping the filaments on to start the warm up cycle.
The police had moved to the Lee St. door and were waiting for me to let them in. I did so as quickly as possible after starting the transmitter.
They still seemed doubtful of this whole business, and milled around the studio and transmitter room until they saw me turn on the console….an RCA BC-7 and begin cueing up a couple of LPs and load the cart machine. Then, they seemed to believe that I actually knew what the heck I was doing and left.
Sign on occurred on time, and the rest of the day was uneventful.
The following Monday, I retrieved the key and made myself a copy. I wasn’t going to go through such an experience again.
Should you ever drive by the location, you can recall my story from all those years ago in your imagination.
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Post by Travis on Aug 25, 2008 15:44:46 GMT -5
Attn: Dan You may enjoy hearing an actual commercial for the Louisville Radio School which may have been recorded in '64 or '65. John Quincy leaves all commercials and newscasts intact (whenever possible) when posting airchecks on his radio tribute sites. Just click the link (below) and check out the first aircheck which is linked just below the photo of WAKY's Weird Beard. The Louisville Radio School spot begins at 9:20 into the aircheck and runs 65 seconds. Background: At some point during 1964 or '65, Burt Markert worked as a nameless afternoon announcer on WPDF in Corydon, Indiana. He would later go on to become known as the Weird Beard on WAKY. On the aircheck, Burt mentions that the Louisville Radio School commercial is being read by a Bill Raul, or Brau, or Brown or somebody. I can't make out the last name. This was certainly before 1967 so you may, or may not, know him. This "Bill" was either with the Louisville Radio School or may have just been another announcer at WPDF; especially, since Burt Markert addresses him by name as he goes into the spot. By the way, according to that ad for the Louisville Radio School, electronic engineers were earning from $6,500 to $20,000 per year. That's something like $3.13 to $9.62 an hour. Wow -- That's what I'm making now. (*grOAn*) Anyway, click on the following link and enjoy. www.79waky.com/airchecksweirdbeard.htm
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Post by dbsteff on Aug 25, 2008 16:53:06 GMT -5
Thanks Travis, I'll check it out, although I can't at the moment....I'm at work and have no sound card available to me.
To the best of my recollection, The Louisville Radio School was NOT accredited to award engineering degrees....so I assume you refer to "Broadcast Engineer" otherwise,I'm a little confused that there would have been a commercial that concerned itself with pay scales for engineers......ANYWAY.....I'll still check it out.
The best one could hope for from the Radio School would be to achieve a FCC 1st Class License. I did so, including the Ship Radar endorsement. The problem I had was that I was NOT a student of the Radio School. I was attending a, long since defunct, technical school in Shively: The United Electronics Institute. Don Fugate and I both went there.
I didn't know it at the time, but the Radio School was using me as some sort of benchmark for their students to measure up to. Had I know it at the time, I'd have been very upset. When I came to understand that I was being held up as some sort of example, I also understood why I sensed some palpable disdain that some of the students seemed to have for me. I achieved my FCC 2nd Class, and later 1st Class License way ahead of any of the students of the Radio School.......I had no idea we were in some blind competition. Indeed, when I left the station for Texas, all the LRS students were still holding FCC 3rd Class licenses with broadcast endorsement. Oh Well.
I had done well in school, and when graduation approached, I was in the top 10 of my class. The Collins Radio Co. had sent a recruiter to UEI, and I was hired and Collins paid to move me to Dallas Texas, where their Broadcast Division was located.
I arrived in Dallas on 7-7-69. I thought I had moved to the depths of Hell. I didn'[t think it could that hot anywhere on the face of the planet. I started on night shift, and it would still be over 100F according to the bank thermometer, as I drove home after midnight each night.
I couple weeks later, Don & I watched the moon landing. Don had followed me to Texas, but a little farther west. Don went to work for General Dynamics in Ft. Worth. Anyway, back to the moon shot; Collins communications gear was in use on the flight, and other Collins avionics and other gear, as well. I felt extremely proud to be a Collins employee.
Later, when Collins was absorbed into Rockwell International, everything went to Hell in the proverbial handbasket. Rockwell had no idea how to manage Broadcast Equipment Manufacturing, and eventually sold the division to Contenental Electronics...now part of DRS.
As a side note; Don and I met at UEI and quickly learned that we were from the same hometown...Huntington WV. We became best buddies and even roomates in a delapidated old trailer on Seneca Drive, off Crittenden, near the airport. It took every dime Don and I made to pay our tuition and make ends meet. Fortunately, Don and I were on alternate pay cycles, so if I was broke, Don had money, and vice-versa....you know how it is to be a student. Anyway, Don and I have remained good friends over these many years. He, his wife and kids are all still in the area.
Still, I've been in the Dallas area since 1969. Many times, though, I've kicked myself for not sticking with Clarence Henson, when he offered me a full time position. Clarence had taken a personal interest in me and afforded me a number of special opportunities.
The grass looked much greener on the Dallas side of the fence at that time, so, well, here I am in Dallas. Don't get me wrong, Dallas has been very good to me and I've had a good career here. Still I really loved Louisville during the 2 years or so I lived there, and often wonder what would have happened had I stayed at WLRS.
Clarence's prime business was as a broadcast consultant. He spent much of his time on the road, putting stations on the air "turnkey" for investors. I helped with one of those...but that's it's own story.
Thanks again for the heads up on the air check info.
Dan
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Post by Travis on Aug 26, 2008 5:26:43 GMT -5
Like you, I would think that the correct title is "broadcast engineer," but the Louisville Radio School spot clearly appears to be enticing the listener to consider becoming an "electronics engineer."
UEI may be gone, but I believe a lot of good engineers came out of there. I knew a guy who was recruited from UEI by NASA during the early '70s. I believe they handled selling his home in Louisville and setting him up in Florida. Later, when the public's interest in the space program declined, he jumped from there to a position with Honeywell or Rockwell (can't remember which). Aside from the Louisville Radio School, UEI was about the only other place where one could achieve a 2nd and/or 1st Phone from the FCC. I believe the J.B. Speed School of Engineering (at U of L) was another. I wasn't really into the electronics or engineering aspects of broadcasting, but a great deal of it can naturally rub off on anyone over time.
During the '70s there was a broadcasting school in St. Matthews. I believe it was called IBS (International Broadcasting School) or possibly ISB (International School of Broadcasting). The in-house radio station was either WIBS or WISB depending on which title I have correct. The school focused on the basics of radio broadcasting such as how to run a board, cue records, read & write copy, personality development, etc. The Louisville Radio School had evolved into a full time commercial FM AOR (WLRS) and the International Broadcasting School, or International House of Pancakes or whatever it was called (sorry) had become the only game in town. Still, many of us got into the biz by merely getting to know the jocks and hanging out at the studios. It didn't cost a dime, but some of us did a lot of running to the late night restaurants to keep the jock in coffee. Hey, we had to earn our keep in some way or another.
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Post by dbsteff on Aug 26, 2008 11:02:12 GMT -5
Hi Travis;
You're quite correct....the best way to break into the biz is to hang around some station. That's what I did, as well. By the time I found myself in Louisville, I had already been on the air at WMUL in Huntington, WV....the Marshall University Labs station. It was a classical format....and I mean classical....Mozart, etc. I was bored out of my mind. Later I wound up at a rock station, much more to my liking.
The transistion to WLRS was difficult. I had been doing top 40 at a station, also in Huntington, and the MOR format at WLRS required a more stilted on-air style. It was the only opening at the time, but I never regreted taking it....met a lot of nice people, especially Clarence Henson.
UEI was an OK school. Nothing to write home about, but the only alternative, if I remember correctly, was DeVry.....much more expensive, and I saw no real advantage to going there.
I am going to burn a CD for John Q. this weekend with some old WLRS air-check stuff. It includes a 1968 Christmas Greeting from the on-air staff, at the time. I will also send him a CD with the MBS special that we aired on WLRS the day after the RFK assassination. It may be to long to post, as I think it is in excess of 20minutes. I'll leave that to John.
Hang in there. I'm happy to have made your aquaintance....even if only by message board.
Regards
Dan
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Post by lfplfilmwindera on Aug 26, 2008 20:31:50 GMT -5
Early on in this thread, there was a mention of Tim Goodwin. I'm surprised that Travis hasn't mentioned this, but Tim worked briefly at the Louisville Free Public Library radio stations. I know this because I worked in the film department at the time and also Tim grew up on the same street I grew up on, Dresden Ave. At his brief time at the Library, he was into photography. The only thing I remember him saying about his days at WLRS was that at that time 'LRS broadcast Cincinnati Reds baseball games. I haven't seen him since those days. It would be interesting to see what he's doing now.
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Post by dbsteff on Aug 26, 2008 21:57:16 GMT -5
I'd love to restablish contact with him as well. He and worked together at WLRS, and I always liked him. He did me a big favor in selecting his shift so mine could be chosen so as not to interfere with my class schedule. He was a genuinely nice guy, and I haven't seen him since 1969, when I left Louisville for Dallas, TX. Intellius would suggest he still lives in the Louisville area. Should you track him down, give him my best regards, and tell him I'd love to hear from him after all these years.
Regards
Dan
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Post by dbsteff on Sept 2, 2008 18:54:41 GMT -5
WLRS & The Boston Pops
Sunday Morning fare at WLRS in the 1968 69 timeframe included a dose of religious music as played from LPs. This proved to be a real ratings-loser. Instead, we adopted a weekly program from the Boston Pops Symphony. They would send us two 10" reels each week of the live performance of the Pops from a week earlier. This was a hit, and we continued the programs for the remainder of my time wit WLRS.
It did prove to be a technical challenge for us, however. If you observed the pics of of studio, as posted on the WLRS webpage, you will have noticed that our Magnecord 1022 reel-to-reel machines were designed to accommodate 7" reels only.
Magnecord had made available a solution. For lack of a better word, it was a CONTRAPTION that attached to the 19"rack and provided extender arms to accomodate 10" reels. The extender arms were belt driven from pullies that attached to the normal reel chucks on the deck.......What a Rube Goldberg thing it was. Still, it worked and allowed us to air the Sunday Morning Boston Pops performances.
Among the audio snippets that I have just put into the mail to John Q. is one of a Boston Pops performance. It's a minute or two of "In the Mood". Actually it's quite good. The quality remains excellent, though the tape is 40 years old.
Much other audio is included, as well. John may use as much or as little as pleases him.
I included a Special Program from Mutual (MBS) on the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, which happened on my shift.....I'll never forget potting the network feed to cue to check for the 10 second tone, only to find, instead, a live broadcast of the horrific goings-on at the Ambassador Hotel, where RFK had been shot moments earlier.
I also included exceprts from various programming from my shows, to include PSAs, Spots, Station IDs, and of course music, appropriate to our format, at the time.
At that time, WLRS did NOT roll tape for air-check purposes. I did from time to time record my own air, to monitor my own performance. My show had a unique "Signature" for want of a better term. Sure, we were an easy listening station, but I was determined that my show would not be considered "elevator music". I always seasoned my show with lots of "latin" beat, or "afro-cuban" beat, or other orchestral punctuation mixed in with some upbeat vocals. My ratings were consistently high as a result and I received many requests for songs that my listeners favored. If you listen to some of the audio I sent off to John, I hope you'll agree.
I think one thing that WSTM, one of our competitors, in those days, did wrong, and I don't recall who was the PD at that time......anyway.....their sound was almost indistinguisable from Muzak.....EEKS.
If you listen to the audio I sent, you'll see that unlike WAKY or some top 40 station, the DJ was only allowed brief time during each half hour to speak. So don't expect to hear an air-check typical of WAKY when you listen to the stuff I sent, which I hope you will.
Joe Stamm's favorite snippet, which I sent along to him, as well as to John Q., is the 1968 Christmas Greeting from the on-air staff at the Time:
Dick Brabant; Dan Steffen; Don Fugate; and Glen Behr.
Anyway, John should receive the stuff I sent in the snail mail by Friday, and post as much as he sees fit in the days thereafter.
Hope you enjoy it.
Best Regards
Dan
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Post by dbsteff on Sept 4, 2008 15:03:41 GMT -5
Pictures too !
I have sent my circa 1968 69 pics from WLRS to John Q. Today. Hopefully they will post at about the same time as the audio CDs I sent earlier in the week. He should receive those today or tomorrow.
Dan
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Post by dbsteff on Sept 11, 2008 16:37:04 GMT -5
Perils of the Fairchild Turntable:
I have mentioned before that WLRS used, what were at the time, state of the art turntables, made by Fairchild. I had never before or since encountered them.
Their claim to fame, as it were, was a remarkable figure of merit as it goes to Wow & Flutter. The means of accomplishing this was attributed to two factors;
Belt drive...to eliminate the transfer of motor noise, usually associated with idler driven turntables and;
A platter that weighed as much as a small car.
I'm kidding, of course, but the platter was very heavy. I'd bet well over 10 pounds. My vacuum cleaner weighs 12 pounds, and I'd say that the platter weighed nearly as much. If you look at them in the pics that John Q. was so kind to post on the WLRS page here at LKYradio, you can best see them on the pic showing our cute little Scottish visitor. The part of the platter that is visible is primarily the cueing flange. The bulk of the platter is sunk deep into the cabinet.
I have mentioned that the weight of the platter on these turntables meant that they were painfully slow to come to speed, and, therefore, were a pain in the butt to cue. The upside, if one can call it that, was that when the belt broke, the inertia, or flywheel effect on the speed of the platter was that it slowed down extremely slowly. Seems like much of a "cut" would go by before one would sense the change in pitch of the singer or melody of a selection.
Anyone, in those days......no prophet system or other such automation......will attest, it was common practice to choose a selection with maximum length to play when one was, shall we say, called by nature to be away from the board for a few minutes.
The weight of the platter placed a lot of strain on the belt, and it failed more often than one would like.
Such was the case one evening. I had put on "The Blue Tango" by the 101 Strings.....cause it's nearly 5 minutes long, if I recall correctly, so as to answer the call.
As I was contemplating the transcendent mysteries of the cosmos in the restroom, that infamous change in pitch occured in my ear.
NOT NOW! I thought. I think I may have even said shuckie-foot & Golly-Darn or some other some pronouncements.
Once the pitch change had become apparent, the subsequent slowdown happened more quickly and unhappily.
By the time I was able to conclude my contemplation and rush back to the control room, the speed had slowed to a point that...well...no one would be doing the tango to that tune.
After my embarrassment was maximum, the phone rang....it was our PD.
"I bet I know where you were!?!" He laughed.
Yeah. I replied.
After that I began producing program tapes. This way I could contemplate when required, without worrying about a repeat of that episode.
I still have many of those program tapes. In fact, some of the program excerpts that John Q. will eventually post contain programming from those tapes.
Yeah, I know, Murphy's law being what it is, I could have just as easily had a tape to break, but if it did, silence would soon ensue, which is not nearly as torturous as listening to an instrumental slowly changing pitch.
Dan
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Post by John Quincy on Sept 12, 2008 19:34:26 GMT -5
Love the old radio stories Dan! Keep 'em coming.
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Post by dbsteff on Sept 16, 2008 19:05:40 GMT -5
OK John, I will.
I was at WLRS and WXVW for two years, there were many things that happened in that time and, as they come to mind, I'll pass along the stories, such as, the time I....
STEPPED OFF THE SIDE OF THE 800 Building.
It was the first occasion for me to go to the roof and visit the transmitter shack. I was on my air shift and Clarence was up on the roof in the transmitter shack.
The studio line rang and it was Clarence. He asked me to join him in the transmitter shack to help him to lift and move the dummy load.
I put on a pre-recorded program tape....you know....one of those I had been prompted to make due to my unhappy experience with the Fairchild Turntable....as I described elsewhere in this thread, and headed for the elevator.
Soon, I was in the rooftop equipment room, where the elevator motors, etc were. Our transmitter shack was not in that area, however, it was in a freestanding shack on the roof. It was its own entity. I knew that, though I had never been there. One could see the top of our mast and the antenna bays from the ground, so I knew about where the shack would be found.
I opened the door and stepped out into....mid-air. It was night and very dark. As I felt my foot falling ahead of me off the side of the building, the skyline of downtown Louisville presented itself to me as a display of street lights, auto lights, building lights, and such.
I'm sure my heart probably skipped a beat and I grabbed that brass doorknob with such a grip that my fingerprints may well still be inprinted into it.
Soon, my foot stopped "falling" and landed upon the tar and gravel roof of the building. I realized I hadn't stepped off the side of the building, but, rather, discovered that there was a good 2 plus foot step from the door onto the roof. The tar and gravel roof was pitch black so, in the split second of my panic I didn't recognize it was there.
There I was hanging from the doorknob, in something like a fetal position, still refusing to let go of it, even though my feet were both on the roof.
Just then, Clarence opened the door to the transmitter shack to see me in my awkward position. He smiled and said:
"Oh..... I meant to tell you about that. That first step is a killer."
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Post by dbsteff on Sept 19, 2008 18:09:33 GMT -5
WLRS circa 1968: Clarence’s equip preferences: For the trivia buffs As I have mentioned, Clarence was a broadcast consultant, in addition to owning three stations in the Louisville area: WLRS; WXVW; WORX. As I observed Clarence’s choice of equipment, not just for his own stations, but also for those stations he specified, I began to pick up on some preferences he seemed to have in certain areas. I noticed that he would select AM Transmitters made by the Collins Radio Co., but for FM applications, he would select RCA transmitters, such as the RCA BTF-10D that we had at WLRS. At one point, I inquired about this preference. I had already had some experience with transmitters before coming to work for WLRS, and had developed a preference for Collins equipment….largely because it was so over-engineered. If a Collins Transmitter was rated at, say, 5,000 Watts, it could pump out 5,000 watts while idling. Often, RCA transmitters would be running at full throttle to produce their rated output. The reliability of Collins equipment for that and for other design related reasons was legendary. I was, therefore, curious that Clarence would prefer RCA for FM applications. Clarence seemed impressed that I had recognized his preference, and happy to explain. He asked if I understood the difference between direct and phase modulation. I said yes, that I had studied both in my FCC 1st phone License guide, though I wasn’t all that knowledgeable regarding the relative merit of either. Clarence’s eyes lit up, as if eager to explain. Indeed, he offered to explain in detail if I would come upstairs to his office the next morning, as he wanted the schematics at hand as he walked me through his explanation. I was flattered that he would take time out of his day to tutor me this way, so I promised to be there. The next morning, when I arrived at his office, Clarence had the schematic of our exciter (RCA BTF 10-E, if memory serves) laid out on his desk. He used it to show me the particulars of how phase modulation was accomplished in this exciter and why he preferred it. He referred to the older “direct modulation” method, still employed in the Collins exciters as “brute force” modulation. He didn’t like it since it tended to cause more instability in the center freq of the master oscillator, and produced other artifacts he didn’t care for. The “phase modulation”, he explained, was more subtle and didn’t involve tickling the main oscillator, thus, potentially, de-stabilizing it, or producing harmonic content or other undesirable artifacts. It was 1968, and Collins hadn’t yet adopted the phase modulation technique. I observed that he had also deviated away from the EV666 microphone, which WXVW had several of, which can be noted in the pic of Don and me in studio at WXVW on the WXVW page here on LKYRadio, in favor of the Turner 510 which can be seen in the pics on the WLRS page. Clarence said that the Turner 510 was new, becoming very popular, and had a nice presence peak in its response curve, and he wanted to give them a try. The mic was, indeed, very popular at the time, and, as I learned later, the Turner Microphone Company was an outgrowth of the Turner Co., whose only other product line was, of all things, embalming machines. For the trivia buff, you can check it out at the following link: www.ericbraun.com/turner/Indeed, Collins Radio Co. purchased the mic re-branded with the Collins “meatball” logo and painted Collins gray. They sold it by the thousands as the Collins M-88. I still have two of them, myself. They sound great, and are almost impossible to overload. In fact, I loaned one to a friend of mine, who is a jazz singer, who used it on one of her tours. If you like jazz you might want to check her out. Her website is: www.lilawilliams.com She was trained by Ella Fitzgerald, and wanted to borrow the mic because Ella used one for a while. She used it on one of her tours, and received many inquiries about it from mic-smart persons in the audience. Turner’s normal offering included a brushed aluminum model, as you’ll see in the WLRS pics, as well as a gun metal blue version for non-glare (TV) applications. The Collins version was special and unique to Collins. Back to transmitters-- Clarence agreed that the Collins AM transmitters were virtually indestructible and confirmed his preference for them. Another unique product selection was the Fairchild Turntables we had at WLRS. I have dealt with them elsewhere, so I won’t elaborate on them here, except to say they had excellent figures-of-merit for wow & flutter, and in the new FM-MPX environment where a broader range of audio frequencies were transmitted, keeping any noise or other artifacts, typical to idler driven turntables, out of our audio was quite important. Those can also be seen in the studio pics here on the WLRS page. I suppose it’s all trivia, but guys like me, and, I bet, many of you are into such trivia. Regards Dan
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Post by dbsteff on Sept 22, 2008 11:10:48 GMT -5
REMEMBER WLRS—SIMULCASTING—WXVW?
Say you don’t remember? Well, they did….not officially, but occasionally.
As you know from my threads, Don F. and I were buddies, from the same home town, Huntington, WV. We met at UEI and worked together at both WLRS and WXVW.
Don, for a while, worked opposite me during the same shift hours, him at WXVW and me, at WLRS.
It didn’t take long for Don and me to figure out that the Mutual Broadcasting System network feed went first to WXVW, and then via the patch panel at WXVW to a Telco leased line, to WLRS.
With a little re-patching Don could feed his console output to that leased line instead of the normal MBS feed.
We figured that neither Clarence nor our respective PDs would, by chance, be listening to both stations at the same time, and that it would be cool to simulcast. We figured we would never be caught, and you know how 19 year-olds are…….well……we did it.
Don and I would be on the phone with each other, and push our spots out as far as we could without totally screwing up the program log, so he could feed me his programming. The line was one way…..I couldn’t feed him my stuff.
At the end of a particular selection, we’d both “pot-down” and play our respective spots, etc. Then, Don would have to change the patch panel back so I could cut to news. We’d return after the news and repeat the same naughty activity.
No one ever caught on. Many evenings, we would do this. So, yes, WXVW and WLRS did, on occasion, simulcast. Fortunately, the powers to be never caught on, or Don and I might have been “Simul-Fired”
After a while the novelty wore off, and it wasn’t fun anymore. So, we stopped.
SORRY, Clarence!
Regards
Dan
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