Post by dbsteff on Oct 27, 2008 6:53:50 GMT -5
WLRS ’68 favorite gear:
I’ve always been more than a simple user of station gear. I really appreciate the design creativity and even the packaging “art” of equipment. While at WLRS, I came to develop such an “affection” for certain of the equipment Clarence had chosen for the station. In particular, was the RCA BC-9 console. In the same way one comes to an “affection” for a particular car, lots of guys develop similar appreciation for gear.
The RCA BC-9 is shown in the pics that John Quincy was so kind to post on the WLRS page on LKYRadio.com. It was rugged, well styled, and easy to operate. The “Digital” channel selection feature allowed one to cross-fade from one source to any other and still keep the number of pots on the console to a mere 4.
Consoles were always my favorite. The first one I ever encountered was at a station in my hometown, WWHY-AM. It was a GATES SA-40. In those days, consoles were more commanding, almost intimidating, in their style and appearance. So it was with the GATES SA-40. Gates, as you may know was later acquired by Harris Corp, and ceased to exist as a brand name. Pity, as GATES was good stuff. Now consoles have an entirely different appearance, and since they adopted sliders in place of rotary pots, I don’t especially care for them. I feel, and have always felt that rotary pots are far more ergonomic than sliders, as the wrist action involved in operating a rotary pot is far more natural and comfortable than the action required for a slider. That, of course, is just my opinion, and many of you may prefer the slider.
The SA-40, to a high school kid, as I was at the time, looked like something out of Star Trek…..I was turned on and could hardly wait to get my hands on it.
Ever seen one? Well it can be found on the old GATES website:
www.oldradio.com/archives/hardware/gates-st.htm
Sure the RCA BC-7 was already around by the time I encountered the SA-40, but I hadn’t encountered it yet. The BC-7 was a really sexy looking console. We had one at the original WLRS location. We moved to the RCA BC-9 when we moved to the 800 Building. The BC-7 we had at WLRS 3rd Street location was moved, if memory serves, to WORX in Madison IN. You can see one, at least partially, on my DJ page in an old publicity shot from 1973 at a station in WV.
I’m sure any of you could talk to your favorite piece of gear, as well.
Microphones are another piece of gear that DJs and other Radio personnel tend to develop favorites. Mine was always the RCA 77-DX. You know, like the one Larry King uses as a prop on his TV show. The 77-DX is one of the most sought after classic studio mics of all time. It used a unique technique. It was a “ribbon-velocity” microphone. It’s pick up element was not a diaphragm as in most dynamic mics…it was a “ribbon” suspended in a powerful horseshoe magnet. It was contained in a “Medicine capsule” shaped housing which included an internal baffling system that could be adjusted to select the polar pattern desired, and an equalization switch to select the desired roll-off characteristics. It could be set for a throaty, even bassy, sound. DJs loved it.
WLRS and WXVW had a collection of EV-666 and RCA BK-5 and Turner 510 microphones. Just about any vintage microphone that one might have developed an affinity for can be found on the following website.
www.k-bay106.com/photos.htm
or
www.coutant.org/contents.html
I thought the reader might appreciate all the old and popular mics shown on this site.
As far as some of the other ’68 studio / RF equipment that I felt Clarence had done a very good job in selecting, and which can be seen in the pics that John has posted on the WLRS page, are:
The Collins Audio processor / Limiter. This is the gray box mounted just above the home made transmitter control panel, which I have spoken of elsewhere. I liked it for the same reason that Clarence did. More than any of its competition, it had an “attack” and “release” mode of operation that was so seamless one couldn’t detect any clipping or other artifacts typical of other such processors. I must be careful in referring to this piece of equipment as an audio processor. That is, indeed, what it was, but the term congers up the impression that it was as sophisticated as the “processors” of today. Those available today are far more capable than our old WLRS Collins Audio processor, pictured, as I described. The Collins box primarily ensured an average modulation level and prevented audio levels from resulting in over modulating our signal. In these days, “processors”, especially voice processors can make anyone sound as desired. Virtually all voice particulars can be manipulated to achieve that end. Peewee Herman could be made to sound like Darth Vader…or, at least like James Earl Jones. Not so in those days. The only piece of voice manipulation equipment common in studios of that era, primarily in Rock stations, was an old box called the Symetrapeak (I think that’s the correct spelling). It had been learned, even then, in the 60’s, that those qualities that render a voice unique occur in the negative peaks, which can be observed if one watches a voice on an oscilloscope. The purpose of the Symetrapeak was to suppress the negative peaks such that they better matched their positive peak counterparts. If you’re old enough to remember 60’s Rock stations, and wondered why all the DJs sounded the same….that’s why. You can almost bet they were using a Symetrapeak. AM stations also used a level controller to avoid over modulation; it was called a Level-Devil. (That may have been its actual brand name…I don’t remember)
The McMartin MPX (Stereo) Generator/ Monitor, new, and state of the art, at the time. It’s the blue box mounted directly above the Collins Audio Processor. It processed the stereo audio feed from the console, arriving after processing from the Collins Processor to generate the L+R and L-R signals, 19KHz pilot tone, etc. needed to feed up to the exciter in the transmitter.
The Fairchild Turntables, you’ve heard me say unkind things about in other threads, but they were not my favorites, in spite of their unmatched figures-of- merit for Wow and Flutter. I noticed, on one of the DJ pages, another former WLRS DJ bad mouthing them because it was necessary to remove the platter from the cabinet and manually change the belt from one speed cam to another in order to play 45’s. I don’t know at what point they lost the formula….but that was never an issue during my time at WLRS. If one observes the pics of these turntables, as posted on the WLRS page here at LKYRadio, one can see the speed change knobs at the left side of the turntable. I acknowledge that, when the belt would fail and have to be replaced, it was difficult to thread the belt through the speed change mechanism, that mechanism could be bypassed, and less stress was, then, applied to the belt. Perhaps, they had stopped using the speed change function by the time he wrote that observation…..in which case, one WOULD have to remove the platter to change the speed.
.
Regards
Dan
I’ve always been more than a simple user of station gear. I really appreciate the design creativity and even the packaging “art” of equipment. While at WLRS, I came to develop such an “affection” for certain of the equipment Clarence had chosen for the station. In particular, was the RCA BC-9 console. In the same way one comes to an “affection” for a particular car, lots of guys develop similar appreciation for gear.
The RCA BC-9 is shown in the pics that John Quincy was so kind to post on the WLRS page on LKYRadio.com. It was rugged, well styled, and easy to operate. The “Digital” channel selection feature allowed one to cross-fade from one source to any other and still keep the number of pots on the console to a mere 4.
Consoles were always my favorite. The first one I ever encountered was at a station in my hometown, WWHY-AM. It was a GATES SA-40. In those days, consoles were more commanding, almost intimidating, in their style and appearance. So it was with the GATES SA-40. Gates, as you may know was later acquired by Harris Corp, and ceased to exist as a brand name. Pity, as GATES was good stuff. Now consoles have an entirely different appearance, and since they adopted sliders in place of rotary pots, I don’t especially care for them. I feel, and have always felt that rotary pots are far more ergonomic than sliders, as the wrist action involved in operating a rotary pot is far more natural and comfortable than the action required for a slider. That, of course, is just my opinion, and many of you may prefer the slider.
The SA-40, to a high school kid, as I was at the time, looked like something out of Star Trek…..I was turned on and could hardly wait to get my hands on it.
Ever seen one? Well it can be found on the old GATES website:
www.oldradio.com/archives/hardware/gates-st.htm
Sure the RCA BC-7 was already around by the time I encountered the SA-40, but I hadn’t encountered it yet. The BC-7 was a really sexy looking console. We had one at the original WLRS location. We moved to the RCA BC-9 when we moved to the 800 Building. The BC-7 we had at WLRS 3rd Street location was moved, if memory serves, to WORX in Madison IN. You can see one, at least partially, on my DJ page in an old publicity shot from 1973 at a station in WV.
I’m sure any of you could talk to your favorite piece of gear, as well.
Microphones are another piece of gear that DJs and other Radio personnel tend to develop favorites. Mine was always the RCA 77-DX. You know, like the one Larry King uses as a prop on his TV show. The 77-DX is one of the most sought after classic studio mics of all time. It used a unique technique. It was a “ribbon-velocity” microphone. It’s pick up element was not a diaphragm as in most dynamic mics…it was a “ribbon” suspended in a powerful horseshoe magnet. It was contained in a “Medicine capsule” shaped housing which included an internal baffling system that could be adjusted to select the polar pattern desired, and an equalization switch to select the desired roll-off characteristics. It could be set for a throaty, even bassy, sound. DJs loved it.
WLRS and WXVW had a collection of EV-666 and RCA BK-5 and Turner 510 microphones. Just about any vintage microphone that one might have developed an affinity for can be found on the following website.
www.k-bay106.com/photos.htm
or
www.coutant.org/contents.html
I thought the reader might appreciate all the old and popular mics shown on this site.
As far as some of the other ’68 studio / RF equipment that I felt Clarence had done a very good job in selecting, and which can be seen in the pics that John has posted on the WLRS page, are:
The Collins Audio processor / Limiter. This is the gray box mounted just above the home made transmitter control panel, which I have spoken of elsewhere. I liked it for the same reason that Clarence did. More than any of its competition, it had an “attack” and “release” mode of operation that was so seamless one couldn’t detect any clipping or other artifacts typical of other such processors. I must be careful in referring to this piece of equipment as an audio processor. That is, indeed, what it was, but the term congers up the impression that it was as sophisticated as the “processors” of today. Those available today are far more capable than our old WLRS Collins Audio processor, pictured, as I described. The Collins box primarily ensured an average modulation level and prevented audio levels from resulting in over modulating our signal. In these days, “processors”, especially voice processors can make anyone sound as desired. Virtually all voice particulars can be manipulated to achieve that end. Peewee Herman could be made to sound like Darth Vader…or, at least like James Earl Jones. Not so in those days. The only piece of voice manipulation equipment common in studios of that era, primarily in Rock stations, was an old box called the Symetrapeak (I think that’s the correct spelling). It had been learned, even then, in the 60’s, that those qualities that render a voice unique occur in the negative peaks, which can be observed if one watches a voice on an oscilloscope. The purpose of the Symetrapeak was to suppress the negative peaks such that they better matched their positive peak counterparts. If you’re old enough to remember 60’s Rock stations, and wondered why all the DJs sounded the same….that’s why. You can almost bet they were using a Symetrapeak. AM stations also used a level controller to avoid over modulation; it was called a Level-Devil. (That may have been its actual brand name…I don’t remember)
The McMartin MPX (Stereo) Generator/ Monitor, new, and state of the art, at the time. It’s the blue box mounted directly above the Collins Audio Processor. It processed the stereo audio feed from the console, arriving after processing from the Collins Processor to generate the L+R and L-R signals, 19KHz pilot tone, etc. needed to feed up to the exciter in the transmitter.
The Fairchild Turntables, you’ve heard me say unkind things about in other threads, but they were not my favorites, in spite of their unmatched figures-of- merit for Wow and Flutter. I noticed, on one of the DJ pages, another former WLRS DJ bad mouthing them because it was necessary to remove the platter from the cabinet and manually change the belt from one speed cam to another in order to play 45’s. I don’t know at what point they lost the formula….but that was never an issue during my time at WLRS. If one observes the pics of these turntables, as posted on the WLRS page here at LKYRadio, one can see the speed change knobs at the left side of the turntable. I acknowledge that, when the belt would fail and have to be replaced, it was difficult to thread the belt through the speed change mechanism, that mechanism could be bypassed, and less stress was, then, applied to the belt. Perhaps, they had stopped using the speed change function by the time he wrote that observation…..in which case, one WOULD have to remove the platter to change the speed.
.
Regards
Dan