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Transcription Mystery Disc #173
This Recordisc transcription disc is in the worst condition I think I've ever seen... well the worst that still had any thing attached to the substrate. I thin we've all seen a bald disc or two. This...
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DJ Hoppy Adams
In 1952 Morris Blum hired Charles "Hoppy" Adams to DJ on 1190 WANN-AM. Billboard even noted hsi hire in their May issue that year. He remained at the station ultimately for more than 40 years. He...
View ArticleThe Wrong Way To Listen to the Radio
This is very very stupid.They are wearing rubber gloves which helps but it's not enough to prevent RF burns. This is obviously an AM station. The electric arc between the radio tower and the hand-held...
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GEE
In 1935, the British began developing GEE. It was developed by Robert Watson-Watt at the Air Ministry and introduced by the Royal Air Force (RAF). The idea of hyperbolic navigation known in the 1930s,...
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The Things They Do To Tradio.
Half a century ago it was also the brand name of a coin-operated hotel radio. Today Tradio is a portmanteau of "trade" and "radio." That word describes the program format as well. People call in to...
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Transcription Mystery Disc # 174
This is a 10-inch Soundcraft transcription disc. It spins at 78 RPM and has an outer edge start. It is clearly labeled and dated and for once in clearly printed letters "RICH & MARILYN STORIES...
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Solder Joints
It is very easy to solder poorly. A bad connection can under-perform and you might get away with it. You might also start an electrical fire or burn out a board component. A bad splice increases...
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WFNM Log
I found these in a record sleeve not too long ago. These 8 pages are from a 37 year old WFNM station log that was at least 23 pages long. The date is listed on two different pages as Saturday 11/20/76....
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OFDM and COFDM
Engineers know that OFDM (orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing) is a multi-carrier transmission system i.e. it uses a number of narrow band sub-carriers, and is resilient in the face of...
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DJ Merle Travis
I know all of two songs by Merle Travis but I bet you know them too. "Dark as a Dungeon" and "Sixteen Tons" were both written and recorded by Merle Travis in the mid 1940s. But 10 years before that he...
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Transcription Mystery Disc #175
This 8 inch metal core Recordisc has an outer edge start and spins at 78 rpm. It's one of the unusual cases that is not only labeled, but the edge start box is even correctly checked. It's dated for...
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This is a hardcore radio man all the way. He manages to stay on air and on the mic while the studio around him catches on fire. This is the first tie I've ever heard of a studio fire not stopping a...
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Static is Spectral
So what is static? In once sense of the word, static just means stationary. But we're talking about radio static— noise in other words. You might already be thinking "white noise" but there are many...
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Interracial Host and Co-Host
I came across a quote from Ahmet Ertgun that sent me thumbing through my radio history books for attribution:"The hot show in New York in those days - the two hot shows - were Willie and Ray - Willie...
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FRB
We do not know what causes the phenomena we call a Fast Radio Burst (FRB.)Â They are similar to the pulses known to emanate from pulsars, and gamma ray bursts (GRB) except they do not repeat...
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Transcription Mystery Disc # 176
This is not the kind of disc I normally find. It's a 10-inch Audio disc with an outer-edge start. It spins at 78 rpm though I had to rip it at 33 rpm because of a notable curvature in the disc. It's is...
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I AM THE BRUCE!
Jet magazine called Ramon Bruce Philadelphia's first negro disk jockey. It was a damn shame when WHAT-AM later fired him for "flagrant neglect of duty" and "insubordination." Bruce claimed that they...
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The Pennsylvania Manual
I have a great respect for mailing lists. Even with modern technology, unless you start with great source material you will be spending some serious time parsing good data from bad. Making a good,...
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Open Source Jazz Servicing
This is an experiment. If you don't already have a radio servicing list, and you can't buy one the only way to make one is the hard way. You make lists, you cross-out and you add...manually, pen and...
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Radio circa 1900
I have tried often to convey the context in which any radio story occurs. A year is just a number, so I usually use events or inventions to contextualize events. It's difficult. Just stating that...
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