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Post by dbsteff on Jan 16, 2009 12:03:21 GMT -5
Don & Dan and the Sign-Off races
I have hesitated to offer this story as it is actually more about my buddy and fellow WLRS DJ Don, and myself than about WLRS the station. Still, I suppose Don and I are part of the station history, so here goes:
Don and I would rotate sign-off duties from time to time. We, being stupid 19 year olds, got into the habit of seeing who could make it home to our run-down old trailer after sign-off.
It was easy to time.....one need only start the clock running when the transmitter was taken off the air, and that was easy to monitor at home.
The station, at that time, was in the 800 Building in downtown Louisville. Our trailer was in a trailer park on Seneca Drive, off Crittenden near the Airport.
One evening, the traffic was virtually non-existent....as one would expect at 1AM, and I was making record time and was so proud of myself and the few minutes that it took me to get home.
When I pulled up in front of the trailer, I saw Don looking out the window at me and pointing behind me.
I turned to find myself face -to-face with one of Louisville's finest, who had followed me home from some point on the expressway. I must have moved too fast as I turned to face him as he yelled "FREEZE" at me and pulled his gun.
Being the super-macho guy I was, I nearly soiled myself.
He really read my beads BIG TIME. He never turned on his lights as he didn't think he could catch me if I ran.....that 390 CI engine in my old 1962 Ford Galaxie was, I admit, pretty awesome.
Anyway, he cussed me out good and assured me that the only reason he was not arresting me and hauling me away in cuffs was that I had run him out of his jurisdiction.
He offered the usual admonition about not trying it again while in his patrol area, or else! Then he holstered his gun and walked back to his patrol car to leave.
I looked up into the window, but was not amused to see my buddy, Don, Laughing Uproariously.
We never played that silly game again.
Regards
Dan
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Post by dbsteff on Jan 26, 2009 10:14:40 GMT -5
IT'S SATIN DOLL
Last evening, I attended an evening of musical fun with my friend Galen Jeter, the founder of the Dallas Jazz Orchestra. He and his group, now play, as well, as the G.J.O. (Galen Jeter Orchestra) at a Country Club in Dallas called the Village. Among the the tunes they play is:"Satin Doll".
It brought to mind an incident from my WLRS days:
I had played that tune, Satin Doll, one evening. Later, when I announced the selections I had played in the last half hour, I had barely closed the mic when the studio line began to ring.
I answered it with the usual high-energy greeting "W-L-R-S!"
The listener only responded by saying:
"It's Satin Doll.....NOT Satan Doll"
I was extremely embarrassed. What a stupid mistake. I knew the difference in the spelling.....I just wasn't paying attention.
I ignored the studio line for a while, as it continued to ring. I didn't need further scolding. I made it a point to play the tune again in the next hour, though I really shouldn't have, it was too soon......besides, it was not a favorite of mine....but I wanted the opportunity to correct the error so the phone would stop ringing.
BTW, if you're into Jazz, Galen has a heavy presence on the web, including some video snippets you can click on and watch. You can Google his name...... Galen Jeter.....and numerous web sites will appear. He's outstanding, even if you're not that much into Jazz.
Anyway, as I have promised in past posts, as these little tid-bits come to mind, I'll pass them along.
I'm still trying to get my buddy, Don, to write his own stories regarding what happened when he was on-air during the '68 earthquake....and other incidents, as well. He seems NOT as eager to write these stories, and perhaps, doesn't relish his time at WLRS/WXVW as much as I. I'll keep after him, as I'd rather he write these stories, himself.
Regards Dan
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Post by dbsteff on Jan 29, 2009 10:32:40 GMT -5
WLRS Dan’s LATE SIGN ON ‘69
Once and only once did I oversleep and sign on late at WLRS. It was a Sunday. My alarm clock, an old wind-up type, had not sounded…..I don’t remember if I had failed to wind it, or not turned on the alarm function, or what. All I remember is waking up to see that the Sun was beginning to rise. I went into immediate panic mode. I jumped out of bed grabbed my clothes and ran to the car, as I was putting them on.
I had no time to shower, comb my hair, or anything else. I drove like the proverbial “Bat out of Hell” to get up Crittenden, onto the expressway and to downtown Louisville.
I was as reliable as taxes, I had never been late for sign on, or any other shift. I was, therefore, scolding myself like never before, during the drive to downtown. I reached my usual parking place in the Church parking lot, about a half block down the street from the 800 Building. My shirt and jacket were lying next to me on the front seat of my Ford Galaxie. I hadn’t taken time, in my haste,to put them on while I was still in the car. I was so distracted that I hadn’t noticed how cold it was. It was winter. Those of you who have lived in Louisville for any length of time know well, how brutal the Louisville winter can be.
I grabbed my shirt and jacket and ran up 4th street to the lobby of the 800 Building. I used my key to open the door into the building and ran to the elevator. Naturally, it seemed like forever for it to take me to the 9th floor. It finally did. I ran to our suite 908, where the studio / control room was. I ran to the transmitter remote-control, and placed the carrier on the air. I grabbed at some albums from the rack, which spanned an entire wall of the studio, and placed an LP on turntable 2, as it was closest. I pulled the sign-on cart from the rack above the console and hurriedly placed it into the cart machine and started it.
I was still bare-chested, my shirt and jacket lying on the floor of the studio, where I had thrown them when I arrived. I must have been a sight to behold. My hair disheveled, my clothes on the floor, etc.
I started the LP I had grabbed from the rack, and tried to regain my composure. Just then, I heard the door open.
OH SH---T! I thought to myself. Sure enough, in came our P.D. not dressed much more completely than I. I was expecting the chewing-out of a lifetime. He only nodded at me. No doubt my state of undress served as witness to the fact that I had beaten a hasty path to get there. He said nothing. Not then nor later. I don’t know why he decided to have mercy on me, not then, not now. We never discussed it.
He had a clock radio in his bedroom, which came on a few minutes prior to sign on. It was therefore revealed to him, immediately, that we were NOT on the air at the prescribed time. This all came to mind yesterday, when much of Dallas was shut down, due to an ice storm. And I was struggling to make it to work.
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Post by dbsteff on Feb 9, 2009 11:35:36 GMT -5
W-L-R-S ’68 –The RED CART
I was checking out the WLRS pics I submitted to LKYRadio, as well as to the WLRS website, primarily to make sure that WLRS had NOT pulled them down. They were still there. You can see any of them here on the LKYRadio webpage. In particular, I was looking at the pic of Tim Goodwin at the console. I noticed the two red carts placed in the vertical cartridge rack next to the console. My memory was jogged, once more, with another anecdote of my time at WLRS. The same was true regarding my time at other stations during my career.
The two red carts were not spots, not PSAs, not tags, not stingers or station IDs or such as one typically associates with carts.
No, these carts were the ones we hoped to never have to play. They were associated with the fledgling (at the time) E.A.S. system. One gave instructions to the listener to tune to the local EAS station designate….if I remember correctly, WHAS for instructions regarding a C.D. (Civil Defense) state of emergency. The other was the “All Clear”.
WLRS did not have an EAS receiver….WXVW did. They were to notify us, should the thing come to life. WLRS only had to become involved if the receiver coded a real emergency, we did not have to participate in any tests. The EAS receiver, in those days, was a clunky old electromechanical box, which could display emergency codes and whether the alert was a test or the real thing.
After 40 years, it’s difficult to remember the particulars of the law, at the time, but if I remember correctly, one could not abandon the station to join in any sort of evacuation, should one be called. You had to remain on duty at the controls, no matter what the nature of the emergency. Even if a nuclear strike was pending, one was to stay at the controls.
I even had a bad, bad, nightmare at one point, that, indeed, I was stuck at the controls waiting on a nuclear strike. I, in my dream, kept announcing the evacuation to a Louisville listening audience that was still fast asleep and in despair that could not awaken them.
I awakened in a sweat, my heart pounding, and grateful that it was only a dream.
When I later attended The University of Dallas, I wrote a brief short story as part of an English course (Required course, naturally) based on the nightmare.
I may have eventually remembered the trepidation I felt regarding that hypothetical eventuality….but the pic with Tim Goodwin and the two “RED CARTS” brought it to mind. I hope no one ever has to play the red carts.
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Post by dbsteff on Feb 24, 2009 11:42:32 GMT -5
DAN’S PANIC CART
I spoke to my buddy, Don, last evening encouraging him once more to write about his experience in 800Building when the earthquake occurred. I can’t seem to motivate him to do so. His radio days are not as big a deal as they are to me…Oh well, I’ll keep after him.
He did, however, suggest I write about the compliment that Clarence Henson paid me for having survived a blown fuse in our RCA console.
It happened out of the blue, one evening. I don’t know why. There was nothing extraordinary going on at the time, no thunderstorms or anything that would have produced an electrical surge, but, suddenly the console went dead. The Illuminated VU meters went dark and, obviously we were not sending audio to the transmitter. We didn’t have a back up studio, no production studio, as I’ve mentioned in earlier parts of the thread, so I couldn’t run to an alternate studio and feed the transmitter from an alternate location. I was in PANIC MODE!
We didn’t keep spare parts…especially fuses in the control room. I knew I could run up to the roof, into the transmitter shack, where we kept spare belts for those pesky Fairchild turntables, as well as a variety of spare parts, including fuses. We’d be off the air, actually transmitting silence, for a good long time if I did that, so I, instead, quickly ran around to the back of the cabinets, as can be seen in the pics posted here on the WLRS page, and repatched the reel-to reel (Magnecorder) to feed the Collins audio processor / limiter directly.
I loaded a program tape and started it running. This, at least put us back on the air with audio. It also gave me time to run upstairs and get a fuse for the console. During the time it took to complete this operation, we missed a station ID and numerous spots.
After the episode was over, I produced what I called and marked the “PANIC” cart.
This was one of the 7” carts…..fills up the entire bay of the cart machine, as can be seen in the studio pics on the WLRS page as well. If memory serves, it had about a half hour of capacity.
The panic cart included Station IDs every 15 minutes or so as well as music that I had transferred from one of my program reels.
A day or two later, I came in for my evening shift to find a note from Clarence.
In it he said, and I paraphrase:
Smart thinking on the “PANIC CART”, Dan. Good idea. Clarence
Given the level of respect I had for Clarence, that was a high compliment, Indeed.
Regards
Dan
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Post by dbsteff on Apr 2, 2009 14:14:34 GMT -5
WLRS 1969 MY FINAL ENCOUNTER WITH JIM
Once again, this story is more about the internal and personal conflicts I experienced with another DJ at the time. I have hesitated to share it. My buddy Don, however, thought it would be OK to relate it since it is about the internal workings of WLRS circa 1969
I have mentioned another of the WLRS DJs in the context of his antics regarding recording some off color material one evening after sign off and that he and I had words about it, afterwards, because Mrs. Henson questioned me about having signed off at the appropriate time that evening, as if I had been responsible, in some way, for airing something inappropriate. Perhaps, had my old 62 Ford Galaxie been equipped with an FM Radio, I would have never made it away from the 800 Building, without realizing what was going on back in the studio and could have gone back up to the studio and switched off of audio processor... Or even confronting Jim about what he was doing. My old Galaxie was NOT FM equipped, and I had no idea, as I drove away, what Jim was up to.
Jim and I were NOT buddies after that experience. Additionally, a couple of things occurred that made things worse between the two of us.
On one occasion, I was asked to work Jim’s shift. I don’t remember if he was sick, or why he was NOT available to work his shift. So, I had to double shift, working sign on till noon, then returning for my normal shift from 7PM to sign off at 1AM.
In any case, I worked his shift that particular day. I decided that I would do a non-stop medley of Hawaiian music for about an hour in the mid morning hour. It was a mix of instrumentals and vocals, interspersed with the usual quotient of spots, news breaks, etc.
The studio line began to ring. It was Mrs. Henson. She said that the main WLRS line, the office line had been ringing off the hook with questions and compliments regarding that medley, which was totally spontaneous on my part….but apparently had been well received amongst the listeners.
I accepted the compliment, but really gave it no more thought. Little did I know that Mrs. Henson would let Jim know about it and essentially inquire why he had never made the phones ring off the hook in the past? He was, understandably, less than pleased with me.
After the incident, what appeared to be acts of sabotage began to happen.
You recall that I had prepared a number of reels of preprogrammed material for use, particularly in the even of a belt break on one of the turntables or some other panic episode in the control room. After a while, I came to use those tapes regularly. I would load two onto the Magnecorders…two different ones, each evening so their interplay mixed with turntable inserted vocals, would keep the program from becoming predictable. That’s why the snippets available from me on the WLRS page are primarily instrumental. I always inserted the vocals manually. Anyway, my tapes were kept on a shelf in the control room closet. (Not visible in any of the pics, but behind the 19” racks where the equipment was mounted.)
Dead spots began appearing in my tapes…erasures, for sure, not tape drop outs.
Someone was deliberately erasing these spots to make the tapes unusable.
I could never prove it, but it wasn’t too difficult to figure out who was doing this.
So… I went out and purchased a Samsonite briefcase…a BIG one, and began keeping the tapes with me at all times. I would take them home with me and bring them back for use each evening. It was a pain in the butt, of course, but it kept any further dead spots from appearing.
One evening I came in early and met a friend who wanted to take me to dinner. I left the briefcase on a table in the P.D.s office and my friend and I left for our meal. Jim was on the air, at the time…I don’t recall why, as it was not his usual shift.
In any case, when my friend and I returned to the station. I found that Jim had pried open the briefcase and was standing there to show me the contents: My program tapes.
He accused me of theft.
At first, I was unaffected and replied, Jim, I guess it didn’t occur to you that if I were stealing tapes, I’d be carrying them out…not bringing them in. Besides, I own these tapes, they are NOT WLRS property. It was then I lost it. Much screaming on my part ensued. He had destroyed the briefcase by prying it open and I announced that I’d expect him to replace it….which he never did. I couldn’t pursue the matter, as my last day with the station was less than a week away. I was ready to throw Jim off the balcony. I was furious.
Strange, how psychology works. I actually think that, even though he knew I’d be gone in a week, he wanted to try to get me fired, or at least ruin my reputation with Clarence.
I received word, not too many weeks after I had moved to Dallas, that Jim had, himself, been fired. I never knew why…but figured that what goes around….
Jim was a strange fellow. He was in the Louisville Radio School, so I guess as long as he paid his tuition he was kept around. He had neither the voice nor the board-skills to be much of a Jock…so I wasn’t surprised to hear he was gone.
Those of you who have been in the business for any length of time know that all too many Air-Personalities are prima-donnas…I would hasten to add there are more, on a percentage basis, in the software engineering field…..I’ve managed hundreds of them over the years… ;-)
I suppose we are, each, our own characters…I certainly am. Still, Jim was a special case, indeed.
So… there’s another anecdotal tale of the inner goings-on at 1969 WLRS
This happened, as I said, shortly prior to my leaving WLRS in June 1969. So, there aren’t any stories that I can relate that would be later than this recounting of my experiences with Jim.
Google indicates, he still lives in Louisville. I have no idea what field he ultimately pursued.
I still bug my friend and former-fellow DJ Don to write some of his stories…so far, no luck
Best Regards
Dan
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Post by dbsteff on Jun 23, 2009 6:40:32 GMT -5
HOW COLD WAS IT?
Spoke with my buddy, Don, last evening. I’m still trying to het him to pen some words about the earthquake experience, as the guy who was on-air in the 800 Building at the time it happened. He just shrugs. If I can get him to relate the story to me in enough detail, I’ll try to write it for him. He did remind me of one issue we all suffered through in the winter months, particularly after we moved to the 800 Building. It was how, when we would park in the Church parking lot, down the street from the 800, and walk to the canopy and front door of the 800, the winter’s wind would be blowing southbound down 4th Street. It would chill one to the bone. It’s a relatively short distance, but I recall, often, walking hurriedly up 4th St, and feeling like someone was walking immediately ahead of me with an atomizer bottle, spraying a mist of icy water in my face.
There were times, even though the distance wasn’t even a full city block, that I’d arrive in the lobby of the 800 Building with ice forming under my nose from the short jaunt. I suppose it must be the same even now. The wind would whip up the moisture from the Ohio River and hurl it down 4th St and into the face of anyone opposing its path. Geez, it gives me a chill just remembering it. Anyone care to share that they have had the same experience?
I’d be so cold, by the time I got to the studio on the 9th floor, my first task was to start some water to heat on the range in the kitchen to make some coffee….we only had that horrible powdered instant coffee, and in 1967-8 we had no microwave, so one had to wait for water to heat on a burner of the electric stove, just to have coffee, such as it was.
The WLRS antenna bays were none too happy with the icy wind either. We used to joke that we had only 3,000 Watts on the air, and expended, probably, 5 times that amount of wattage in the antenna de-icer.
Along the same lines, I remember, one particular morning that I rose at the usual dark-thirty to head to the station. I put my 1962 Ford Galaxie into reverse, to back out of the driveway and onto the street to begin my journey. The car made a bit of a lunge but didn’t move. What the “H” I thought.
I got out and inspected the car to discover that the ice storm, the night before had frozen my tires to the pavement. I’ve never had that happen since….it was a one-time experience…thank goodness. I had to go back inside and bring some water out to pour it on the ground to free my tires to roll.
We get some awesome ice storms in Dallas, but I’ve never had my tires freeze to the pavement.
Oh well, Don reminded me that we had some cold and chilling times during our time in Louisville. Perhaps you have too.
Dan
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adam
New Member
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Post by adam on Jun 23, 2009 20:45:42 GMT -5
Hmm maybe if i can remember sometime this coming winter I'll do a modern experiment with that? I noticed the canapy outside the 800 a few weeks ago. Then I could post my results..maybe Louisville has enough skyscrapers now to blow the force of all that harsh weather sweeping south? haha
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Post by dbsteff on Jun 24, 2009 6:25:59 GMT -5
You make a good point, Adam. I hadn't thought about the fact that Louisville's skyline has changed dramatically since my days there. It may well be that the windbreaking effect of all the new buildings...which were NOT there in the late 60's would have made a northbound walk up 4th Street a bit less challenging. I'll be interested in the results of your experiments.
The freezing rain event that froze my tires to the pavement is one I'll never forget. As I said, we get some awesome freezing rain and or ice storms in Dallas. I've had sheets of ice form on the side of my car...the side facing North...such that I couldn't get my key in the door's lock. This, of course, being before key fobs and remote control door locks.....but, not even in Dallas, have I had my tires freeze to the ground.
At the time, I was living in Shively, and had not moved to the rickety ol trailer that my buddy Don and I shared till we graduated from UEI.
When I put the car into reverse, it reacted much as if one experiences when one holds a foot on the brake and places an aoutomatic transmission into gear. I could feel the transmission engage, but the car wouldn't budge....it was weird.
Anyway, it would be interesting to see if you can replicate the experience in the winter. I don't recall the precise air temp at the time, but it was well below freezing, that is to say well below 32 F.
Take Care.
Dan
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Post by dbsteff on Dec 17, 2009 10:50:05 GMT -5
Don at WLRS during the earthquake
I’ve tried repeatedly to get my friend Don to write his experience at WLRS during the 1968 earthquake, of which I have written in its own string, but I can’t seem to get him to do so.
As an alternative, I’ve had him relate the story to me, at length, verbally. I will try to write it in the manner he described it to me:
To help make sense of a couple of points, I invite the reader to look at the vintage pics on the WLRS page of the control room, console, mics, etc.
Notice that the microphones are mounted to goosenecks. The two tone arms were equipped with Shure M-44-7 pick up cartridges and set to appx 1 gram of tracking force.
Don relates that he was at the controls at the time of the quake, though no one knew, initially, that it was indeed, a quake. Everyone living in or having parked a car in the 800 Building garage was aware of the fact that the superstructure of the building rests on huge coil springs. The building was specifically designed to be earthquake resistant, though no one gave it much thought, since the likelihood of an earthquake in Louisville KY, seemed remote, at best. So, Don wasn’t expecting what was about to happen. (See the pic of the “800 Building” on the WLRS page)
Don explained that, suddenly, the microphones began bobbing up and down on their goosenecks, and that the tone arms each jumped up and off the LPs only to land again on the LP and bounce off again.
Don says that the entire building could be felt bobbing up and down. This was unusual and quite alarming, as one can imagine. The 800 Building was known to sway in high winds, also due to the spring action attached to the superstructure, but it was NOT known to bob up and down.
After what must have seemed like an eternity, Don decided that he should take the station off the air and leave the building.
He loaded the “SIGN-OFF” cartridge into a cart machine and started it.
I had recorded the SIGN-OFF cart and, of course, never dreamed it would be played in such a circumstance. So…it was relatively lengthy. It opened with the theme from “Gone with the wind”….”Tara’s Theme”, over which I read the station particulars…….something like this:
“At this time WLRS concludes another broadcast day…..WLRS operates at a frequency of 102.3 Megahertz with an effective radiated power of 3,000 Watts”….etc, etc, etc……the tape then faded into the National Anthem
Waiting on the SIGN-OFF tape to run its course proved to be excruciating for Don, who, by now, could hear much commotion in the hall of the 9th Floor, where our studios were located. So, he potted down the sign off tape and opened the mics long enough to say “Due to technical difficulties, we are signing off at this time.”…. Or words to that effect.
Don wasted no time in taking the transmitter off the air and making his exit to the corridor, where he encountered virtually all the other residents, who were home at the time, making their way to the staircase. No one wanted to ride the elevators down.
Only after making it to the street level, outside the building, did everyone realize what had happened, and that a tremor had occurred. The springs hadn’t suddenly failed, dooming the 800 Building to an untimely demise…..on the contrary, they had performed precisely as designed.
Don doesn’t recall precisely how much time passed before it was decided that the building was safe for re-entry, but he eventually made his way back to the 9th floor and put WLRS back on the air.
So…..there is some additional WLRS “Early Days” trivia for those interested.
If Don should ever decide to write the story in his own words, I’ll be sure to pass it along to LKY Radio.
Regards to All
Dan
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Post by dbsteff on Jan 28, 2010 7:16:00 GMT -5
early in this thread, I spoke of the instance wherein I boldly stepped through an equipment room (on the roof of the 800 building) into what seemed thin air. I believed for a few seconds that I had stepped smooth-off the side of the building. The even scared the stinky stuff out of me. I deal with it in more detail earlier in the thread. Recently, I came across, while surfing the net, a pic taken from a vantage point south of the 800 building, looking north. Sure enough, there is the infamous door at the top of the building. In the pic, the door even appears to be open. I shall NEVER forget that door, and thought you might appreciate seeing it: Attachments:
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Post by dbsteff on Oct 3, 2013 17:14:13 GMT -5
Personnel Update;
I have spoken throughout this thread of my buddy Don Fugate. I have learned that he has purchased a home back in our hometown of Huntington WV. He and his wife intend to relocate back there at some point in the future and perhaps commute between their home here in Texas and the one they, just recently, purchased in WV.
I am considering doing the same. The Texas that Don and I both moved to in 1969 and utterly fell in love with, simply doen't exist any longer. It's a real shame.
The temperate climate and the benefits of no income tax make us both loath the notion of leaving.....but the crime rate and the new demographics cause us both to consider what we're staying here for.
In any case. I thought you might like to know what's up with the old WLRS / WXVW staffers....namely Don and I.
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Post by dbsteff on Oct 27, 2013 7:45:42 GMT -5
Hi everybody; I thought it might be worthwhile to reprise my Stereo tutorial as depicted in my "WLRS BROADCASTING in Stereo" article so:
Virtually all FM stations today transmit in “Stereo”… such that they don’t even make mention of it. But in 1968 Stereo was a very big deal. There were many FM stations on the air, at that time, but they were transmitting in Mono. Some were quick to get on board wit the Stereo craze, others lagged behind the herd. So, it was a Huge marketing point of distinction to proclaim that one was “Broadcasting in STEREO”
If you listen to some of my audio snippets, as posted by John Quincy on the WLRS page, you’ll hear stingers proclaiming that WLRS was indeed “BROADCASTING IN STEREO”.
The technical significance of Stereo Multiplexing was lost on the listener. Only those of us in the technical community really had an appreciation for it. In part, the Stereo signal was quite an engineering coup.
When the notion of stereo transmission first came into the Radio community, several competing techniques were put forth for consideration and ultimate adoption by the FCC.
The FCC proclaimed that any such technique must be compatible with the Mono signal already in place. There were, after thousands of existing receivers out there, and the FCC wanted to ensure that they were not rendered obsolete by the Stereo concept. Color TV faced a similar challenge when it was introduced into a well established Monochrome market. There was to be no clean break, which would have been the outcome of many of these other techniques……much as we are about to see in the Digital TV changeover coming in Feb, 2009.
Anyway, the challenge was to come up with a technique that would be useable by existing Mono FM receivers, but could then be decoded to produce Stereo in the new Stereo-equipped receivers.
I may be wrong, it’s been 40 years…but I believe it was RCA that solved the problem.
It was pretty darned clever, as to how they did it.
In order to keep the Mono receivers happy, one was constrained to transmit in Mono.
So how did these technical magicians provide Stereo over the same transmission?
Well, by means of transmitting a difference signal on a sub carrier, riding along side of the main signal.
It’s really pretty darned smart. I’ll offer a greatly simplified explanation, and hope it makes sense…..here goes:
If one considers the two signal involved in Stereo…..a Left Channel (L) and a Right Channel (R) The equivalent Mono signal is a simple combination of the two: L+R. This is the signal that was transmitted on the main frequency of the station. Thus, existing receivers could decode and present this mono signal as they always had. First problem solved.
Now came the clever piece of engineering.
I won’t dwell at length on how the subcarrier was generated or the 19 KHz pilot tone upon which it was referenced, as we’d be out into the weeds quickly. I will mention, however that the presence of the 19 KHz pilot tone was what the Stereo-Equipped receivers detected to illuminate the “STEREO” lamp on the receiver as well as to provide the reference for the demodulation of the difference signal that allowed Stereo to be produced.
I’ll try to explain this in the easiest math model possible:
The L+R signal was the Mono equivalent as described earlier. The R signal was run through an inverter amplifier to produce –R. The –R was then combined with the L signal to produce what is called the difference signal, or L-R. This signal was transmitted on the subcarrier.
In the receiver the difference signal, L-R was combined with the L+R in the following fashion:
L+R L-R = 2L
Now one has L (the left channel) decoded at twice the volume level. (Easily attenuated back to L)
Now the receiver would run the difference signal through an inverter amp to produce signal: –L+R. This signal was then combined, in similar fashion, with the Mono signal L+R, as before. This produces the result:
L+R -L+R = 2R
Now one has R (the right channel) decoded at twice the volume level.
The receiver now has decoded both L and R and can present them as Stereo to the speakers of the radio. In the absence of a 19 KHz pilot tone, the receiver would simply process the L+R (Mono) and present it to both speakers. Also the “STEREO” lamp on the receiver would be extinguished. PRETTY CLEVER, HUH?
Anyway, at a minimum, a station transmitting in Mono would require a new exciter to convert to Stereo….not to mention that all the studio equipment would have to be converted to stereo, as would any STL (Studio to Transmitter Link) equipment. So it was a major undertaking for an existing station.
So it was a very BIG DEAL, in those days, for a station to proclaim itself to be “BROADCASTING IN STEREO”
Most stations, including WLRS much ballyhooed the fact, as evidenced by our Station IDs and other stingers.
FYI: The Color TV challenge was solved in the same fashion. The main signal transmitted the image in Black & White, while a difference signal (much more complicated than the one used in FM Stereo) was used to decode the R-G-B color signal and paint color onto the Black & White picture.
Regards
Dan
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Post by dbsteff on Oct 26, 2014 4:33:06 GMT -5
I promised to keep you aware of any change in status to Don Fugate or myself. Don, as promised, has moved back to the hills of West Virginia. Both he and I have become quite disillusioned with The Dallas- FT. Worth evolution. One need only watch a few episodes of the TV series "The First 48" to see what has become of Dallas. Sadly, one need only watch a few episodes of that same TV series to see what has become of Louisville. It breaks my heart. Don will spend time, in his retirement with rod and reel. He will shuttle (seasonally) between his house in Ft. Worth and the one he and his wife have purchased in WV. His adult children and his grandchildren still live in the Ft. Worth area. As for myself, I'm doing a gig with a small FM station in Macomb Illinois. I record programming in my home-studio, upload them to Dropbox and then the station pulls them down and airs them on Wed evenings from 9PM -- 11PM Central Time. The station: www.wtnd.org. They stream live. I enjoy doing the programs. I operate with the air-name of "Rick Austin"...a name I came up with by borrowing the names of two of my great nephews, Ricky & Austin. The format for my show is oldies rock. I'll continue to do this so long as my health permits. I will eventually follows Don's lead back to the hills. I don't know exactly when. I have a house I'd have to sell...etc. I'll keep you posted. It will be difficult to leave Texas, as it has been very good to me career-wise. Don & I both fell in love with Texas and it's unique myth when we both move to The Dallas Ft. Worth area in 1969. Dallas was already a big city, but with a little southern town personality. One could count one could always count on a charming "YA'LL COME BACK NOW" when leaving a restaurant or other business establishment. Those days are long gone now and will not be coming back....SAD!!! Thousands move into Texas every month from all over the country and, of course, from other countries. Indeed, Texas has for all intents become the northernmost province of Mexico. We have created a cultural cacophony that is proving to be utterly untenable. I can't imagine it will ever be made to work. Oh Well, time will tell, I suppose. Regards Dan
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Post by dbsteff on Jan 23, 2015 9:00:49 GMT -5
UPDATE ON PERSONNEL CHANGESI had a wonderful visit with Don and his wife Ann while on my Christmas vacation to West Virginia to see my family. Don and his wife had moved into a very nice house nestled in the hills just outside of Huntington. They have furnished and appointed it very nicely. Because of the season, Christmas decorations abounded about the house. Ann took a picture of Don and I standing next to each other. It brought back memories of a pic that Don and I took, shortly after moving from Louisville to Texas....don to Ft. Worth and me to Dallas. I searched and found the old pic, which I will post herein along with the recent pic, taken by Ann. Somethings change and others do not. I do admit to envying Don for keeping his hair even though it has changed in color. Something that didn't change....Don's favorite adult beverage is still beer, while mine remains bourbon. A friend suggests I not be too hard on Dallas.....so. When Don and I moved to Texas, Don to Ft. Worth and I to Dallas we found ourselves in a milleau only 6 years after the JFK assassination/ I was struck at just how patriotic the people in the area were and how ashamed they were of what happened in Dallas that fateful November day in 1963. Over the ensuing years the talk radio stations in the local market spent much time on all the countless books that had been written on the JFK assassination. Numerous were the conspiracies and the books that reflected them. I won't dwell on all of that as I don't want to get too far afield from the purpose of this webpage. Living in Dallas in those years brought with it an obligation to try to get to the bottom of the matter. I read all the books and listened to countless hours of talk radio. I must say that the theory put forth by Fletcher Prouty (depicted as Mr. "X" in the Oliver Stone movie JFK) always struck me as the most believable. Prouty always insisted that we were asking the wrong questions. He suggested that instead of asking "Who"...how many...what about the grassy knoll,(Lucien Sarti) we should be asking "WHY". he insisted that if we can figure out the "WHY"...we'll know the answers about the "WHO". He was in a position to know. His story is quite compelling. See Prouty's 1975 article "The Guns of Dallas". So Dallas in those days was a very special place to reside. What it evolved into now.....well.....the Dallas I moved to in 1969 and virtually fell in love with no longer exists and won't be coming back. It's sad. Forgive me for getting onto a tangent, but it seems worthwhile. Dan Attachments:
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