Post by dbsteff on Aug 28, 2008 15:40:52 GMT -5
WLRS – THE EARLY COMPETITION CIRCA 1968
One evening, while I was on shift, the studio phone rang. It was a fellow, whose name after 40 years, I confess I don’t remember….anyway… it was my counterpart on a station in St. Matthews, WSTM. WSTM was also a MOR (Easy listening) format station, and in that regard, our competitor. I have no idea if WSTM still exists or what station now operates in their space.
We hadn’t been in the 800 building very long, at the time, and he indicated he would appreciate a courtesy visit to see our new digs. He offered to reciprocate by giving me the nickel tour of WSTM. I became immediately suspicious, in light of some comments he made that this was really an “Intelligence” gathering mission. Comments like… “Now that you guys are kicking our ass” and similar comments acknowledging the greatly increased range and signal strength that WLRS gained in its move to the 800, I’m sure had piqued the interest the WSTM Program Director.
The following evening, He appeared for the visit. The 800 building had, as part of its security facility, a doorman, Sam, during the day, and at night, an intercom system, for a visitor to buzz to communicate with one of the residents. Remember, the 800 was largely a residential enterprise. I think, at the time, WLRS was the only business in the building.
When so desired, the resident could press a button to release the front door for a visitor to enter. So it was with my visitor from WSTM. I buzzed him in, and told him we were in suite 908. Soon he was at the door.
I gave him the quick tour of our studio…that didn’t take long. He commented on the new, and at the time, state of the art, console. It was an RCA BC-9. You can see it in the pics I have posted on the WLRS website….check out the “Locals Only –Old School” tabs on their website.
It was 1968, so nothing was truly “digital” in any sense we would the term these days. Still the BC-9 had a unique feature that allowed it to perform with only four pots as if it were a BC-7 that had ten. Pots 1 & 4 had an 8- button (illuminated buttons…WoooHooo) such that one could select any of the 8 sources from either pot. Thus one could cross-fade from any source to any other source. The other two Pots were dedicated to a single source.
As a matter of trivia; I remember the source designation on that console. On the two selectable Pots…1 & 4… Button 1 was (a Fairchild turntable) turntable 1; Button 2 was turntable 2; Button 3 was the lower of the two Magnecord 1022 reel – to- reel decks; Button 4 was the higher of the Magnecords. Button 5 was the network feed from MBS.
The remaining Buttons were used for a variety of sourcing, i.e. remote feeds and such.
The dedicated pots were: Pot 2, cart machine and Pot 3, Studio mics.
When I review certain pics of the studio, whether posed or taken in real on-air circumstances, I can tell what source was actually in use when the pic was taken. As an example, when the cute little Scottish girl posed for a pic at the console. The pic reveals that, source 3 was actually in use. Thus a reel of pre-recorded music was actually on air while the pic was taken.
Anyway. I explained that several things accounted for WLRS’ new reach and strength. First, our antenna height had probably more than doubled from our old, and relatively short antenna at the S.3rd Street location. Antenna height is extremely important to FM Broadcast, as it increases the “line of sight” to the horizon, which is a relative indicator of range, as those of the readers who are technical know well. Secondly, Clarence Henson, in his primary business as a Broadcast Consultant, had a “BETA” agreement with RCA, thus allowing him to access to new equipment well ahead of the general market. In this case, WLRS was the first in the area, perhaps the first in all of Kentucky, to employ the new and state of the art, at the time, antenna with “circular polarization Circular polarization makes the orientation of the receiving antenna irrelevant. I can’t remember, after 40 years, if ours was a two or four bay antenna…guess that’s not important…. (I think it was a 2-bay with, of course, a gain of 1.) Most FM stations, at that time, operated with antennae that were polarized in the horizontal…which was a big problem for folks receiving their signal in cars, which have receiving antennae polarized in the vertical. I won’t belabor this writing with the detail regarding the degradation that occurs to the workability of that mismatch, except it can be marked.
I could sense my visitor taking mental notes about it all, no doubt to carry back to the technical folks at WSTM.
Our visit was cordial and I accepted his offer for a reciprocal visit to WSTM, which I did a few evenings later.
As I drove up to the station, I could view their tower. It was about the same height as had been the WLRS tower at the original 3rd St. location. I’m not the best judge of such things, but I’d say that the tower was, perhaps 85 ft…100 at the most.
Someone had spent a great deal of money on their studio. Everything was brand new. They had a Collins console, top of the line. I don’t remember the model number, but it was the first of the Collins consoles to abandon the resistive step function Pots, as used by everyone else, in favor of an optically coupled pot. Anyway it was a very nice studio.
After the nickel tour, I settled into a chair next to my host at the console. More than anything else, the point regarding WLRS kicking their butt was driven home for me by a note taped to the console, I suppose by their engineer:
“Ride the gain HIGH at all times; We need the modulation to compete with WLRS.
One evening, while I was on shift, the studio phone rang. It was a fellow, whose name after 40 years, I confess I don’t remember….anyway… it was my counterpart on a station in St. Matthews, WSTM. WSTM was also a MOR (Easy listening) format station, and in that regard, our competitor. I have no idea if WSTM still exists or what station now operates in their space.
We hadn’t been in the 800 building very long, at the time, and he indicated he would appreciate a courtesy visit to see our new digs. He offered to reciprocate by giving me the nickel tour of WSTM. I became immediately suspicious, in light of some comments he made that this was really an “Intelligence” gathering mission. Comments like… “Now that you guys are kicking our ass” and similar comments acknowledging the greatly increased range and signal strength that WLRS gained in its move to the 800, I’m sure had piqued the interest the WSTM Program Director.
The following evening, He appeared for the visit. The 800 building had, as part of its security facility, a doorman, Sam, during the day, and at night, an intercom system, for a visitor to buzz to communicate with one of the residents. Remember, the 800 was largely a residential enterprise. I think, at the time, WLRS was the only business in the building.
When so desired, the resident could press a button to release the front door for a visitor to enter. So it was with my visitor from WSTM. I buzzed him in, and told him we were in suite 908. Soon he was at the door.
I gave him the quick tour of our studio…that didn’t take long. He commented on the new, and at the time, state of the art, console. It was an RCA BC-9. You can see it in the pics I have posted on the WLRS website….check out the “Locals Only –Old School” tabs on their website.
It was 1968, so nothing was truly “digital” in any sense we would the term these days. Still the BC-9 had a unique feature that allowed it to perform with only four pots as if it were a BC-7 that had ten. Pots 1 & 4 had an 8- button (illuminated buttons…WoooHooo) such that one could select any of the 8 sources from either pot. Thus one could cross-fade from any source to any other source. The other two Pots were dedicated to a single source.
As a matter of trivia; I remember the source designation on that console. On the two selectable Pots…1 & 4… Button 1 was (a Fairchild turntable) turntable 1; Button 2 was turntable 2; Button 3 was the lower of the two Magnecord 1022 reel – to- reel decks; Button 4 was the higher of the Magnecords. Button 5 was the network feed from MBS.
The remaining Buttons were used for a variety of sourcing, i.e. remote feeds and such.
The dedicated pots were: Pot 2, cart machine and Pot 3, Studio mics.
When I review certain pics of the studio, whether posed or taken in real on-air circumstances, I can tell what source was actually in use when the pic was taken. As an example, when the cute little Scottish girl posed for a pic at the console. The pic reveals that, source 3 was actually in use. Thus a reel of pre-recorded music was actually on air while the pic was taken.
Anyway. I explained that several things accounted for WLRS’ new reach and strength. First, our antenna height had probably more than doubled from our old, and relatively short antenna at the S.3rd Street location. Antenna height is extremely important to FM Broadcast, as it increases the “line of sight” to the horizon, which is a relative indicator of range, as those of the readers who are technical know well. Secondly, Clarence Henson, in his primary business as a Broadcast Consultant, had a “BETA” agreement with RCA, thus allowing him to access to new equipment well ahead of the general market. In this case, WLRS was the first in the area, perhaps the first in all of Kentucky, to employ the new and state of the art, at the time, antenna with “circular polarization Circular polarization makes the orientation of the receiving antenna irrelevant. I can’t remember, after 40 years, if ours was a two or four bay antenna…guess that’s not important…. (I think it was a 2-bay with, of course, a gain of 1.) Most FM stations, at that time, operated with antennae that were polarized in the horizontal…which was a big problem for folks receiving their signal in cars, which have receiving antennae polarized in the vertical. I won’t belabor this writing with the detail regarding the degradation that occurs to the workability of that mismatch, except it can be marked.
I could sense my visitor taking mental notes about it all, no doubt to carry back to the technical folks at WSTM.
Our visit was cordial and I accepted his offer for a reciprocal visit to WSTM, which I did a few evenings later.
As I drove up to the station, I could view their tower. It was about the same height as had been the WLRS tower at the original 3rd St. location. I’m not the best judge of such things, but I’d say that the tower was, perhaps 85 ft…100 at the most.
Someone had spent a great deal of money on their studio. Everything was brand new. They had a Collins console, top of the line. I don’t remember the model number, but it was the first of the Collins consoles to abandon the resistive step function Pots, as used by everyone else, in favor of an optically coupled pot. Anyway it was a very nice studio.
After the nickel tour, I settled into a chair next to my host at the console. More than anything else, the point regarding WLRS kicking their butt was driven home for me by a note taped to the console, I suppose by their engineer:
“Ride the gain HIGH at all times; We need the modulation to compete with WLRS.