ARCANE RADIO TRIVIA

Text Message Abbreviations

2012-02-15T20:29:00.001-05:00

I've had a little problem that's been becoming more common. Certain common (and uncommon) acronyms that get used in texting, IM and other quick SMS-type text messages happen to also be call letters. Some are more common than others, and on rare occasion, in context both meanings can be possible for those of us that work in radioland. I found a few rather large lists online that included many I'd encountered.

I cant' speak for the veracity of any claims to the regular usage all of these. But I expect you will recognize most of them. I list below all that I've found with 4 characters starting with a "K or a "W". I exclude those that might match 3-letter call signs as their increasing rarity diminishes the confusion.

KHYF - Know How You Feel
KISS - Keep It Simple Stupid
KMBA - Kiss My Black Ass
KMUF - Kiss Me You Fool
KMWA - Kiss My White Ass
KOTC - Kiss On the Cheek
KOTL - Kiss On The Lips
KWIM - Know What I Mean?
KAEO - Keep An Eye Out
KYCU - Keep Your Chin Up
KYEO -Keep Your Eyes Open
KYFC - Keep Your Fingers Crossed
KYNC - Keep Your Nose Clean
KYPO - Keep Your Pants On
WAEF - When All Else Fails
WAFB - What A Fucking Bitch
WAFM - What A Fucking Mess
WAFU - What A Fuck Up
WATB - Water Under the Bridge
WAYD - What Are You Doing?
WAYN - Where Are You Now?
WDYM - What Do You Mean?
WDYS - What Did You Say?
WITW - What In The World?
WMPL - Wet My Pants Laughing
WRUD - What "R"You Doing?
WTFH - What The Fucking Hell?
WUWH - Wish You Were Here
WWJD - What Would Jesus Do?
WYCM - Will You Call Me?
WYRN - What's Your Real Name?

Transcription Mystery Disc #100

2012-02-14T23:13:00.000-05:00

This is a Wilcox-gay Recordio acetate. It has an outer edge starts and spins at 78 rpm. This is not a typical home recording in that it's been stamped across the label with the name of a business "Rowden Radio." The text reads " -SALES AND SERVICE - ELECTRICAL APPLIANCES - RADIO - PHILGAS STOVES - BOTTLED GAS - PHONE 16 - AUBURN, MICHIGAN." Below that the word "radio" is written in pencil. the recording turns out to be a band scan, a very strange noisy one.

Rowden Radio

The audio hops from channel to channel with vocals, news and an array of AM band noise. Lacking an address I cant look up much about the business. Rowden is surely a surname and if not the proprietor probably the founder.

Lectures From OEJRC (Part 2)

2012-02-13T20:34:00.000-05:00

Last summer I scanned and posted a pdf from a history lecture aired on WOSU-AM in 1935. That post is here. It was a part of the OEJRC (Ohio Junior Emergency Radio College) program at Ohio University. This lecture is in Spanish and admittedly I barely understand a word of it.

It's author was Professor William Samuel Hendrix, one can hope it is some forefather of the infamous 60s guitarist... but I doubt it. According to the The Modern Language Journal of 1937 the course was taught in 1934- 1936 at 10:30 in the morning by radio over WOSU. Similar classes continued until at least 1942. Hendrix appears in the Ohio State course catalog at least as early as 1918, and I found a copyright for a first Spanish text book dating to 1923. By 1935 Hendrix was the head of the foreign language department at Ohio State U. He later went to to be the chairman of the Radio Committee for the National Federation of Modern Language Teachers.

The lecturer was Demetrio Cabarga, he wrote of his involvement in The Modern Language Journal but other documents just describe him as a Spanish language instructor. He is however listed later in a 1943 issue of Printer's Ink as having also worked at Mississippi State U. Crosley International and WLWO. If you remember, WLWO was a commercial short wave station owned by Crosley. It broadcast Voice Of America (VOA) in Spanish, English and Portuguese into South America. They did air advertising, but really the bills were paid by the U.S. government in return for airing WWII propaganda. It's a fascinating story I'll write about another day. More here.

OEJRC Lecture: HISTORY

by Prof. Arthur H. Noyes

DOWNLOAD HERE

Jean Shepard on WOR-AM

2012-02-10T20:11:00.000-05:00

There's a whole series of WOR-AM Jean Shepard clips on Youtube. I've posted a few here but I do recommend watching more of the rest.

Censorship is bad.

2012-02-09T17:44:00.002-05:00

Censorship is among the worst of all evils. When censorship is alive, you can be obstructed from even discussing your grievances, or debating your recourse. Nonetheless, a clique of odious, moneyed politicians in Washington D.C. keep trying for it. For the those with fascist inclinations, it's the golden ring they're reaching for. For the rest of us it's anathema to our American values. Their motivations are irrelevant. Protect IP, SOPA, ACTA, TPP, OPEN... each of these bills seeks to create a censorship mechanism to obstruct the free flow of information on the internet. Once such a mechanism exists, it can be misused. And once it's in place it's too late.

Stop ACTA & TPP: Tell your country's officials: NEVER use secretive trade agreements to meddle with the Internet. Our freedoms depend on it!

I urge you to vote no on ACTA and to communicate its severe problems to your colleagues. ACTA's vague language locks us into obsolete copyright and patent laws, preventing democracies from updating their laws to unlock new economic and social opportunities.It criminalizes harmless remixes by ordinary users if they achieve 'a commercial scale' (art 2.14.1) which many amateur videos do on sites like Youtube. And it criminalizes legitimate websites by making them responsible for user behavior ('aiding and abetting' art 2.14.4).Worse, it permanently bypasses the democratic process by empowering the 'ACTA Committee' to 'propose amendments to [ACTA]' without your approval. (art 6.4) In other words, it's impossible to know what you're voting for.The global movement against the US law SOPA showed that internet freedom is a crucial issue which belongs in the legislative process of each country. You should view ACTA as an attempt by a handful of companies to circumvent the democratic process, and you should vote against it.Thank you. Please reply if you have any questions.

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To Reed or not to Reed

2012-02-08T21:12:00.002-05:00

It was just this week that 97.9 KRRC went dark, possibly for good. The Reed College radio station has had a long and troubled history and the expectations have often been grim. They were operating at a mere 8.2 watts before this and it had been a long struggle to get that much at all. But let's begin at the beginning. More here.

The first incarnation of the Reed Radio Club began in 1954, by October 1955 KRCB-AM was a reality. This carrier current station operated on 660 AM. Their studio was in the basement of Doyle dormitory and they may or may not have also had a wee little pirate transmitter. Regardless of the legalities, this grew into a 10watt Class-D station, 89.3 KRRC-FM by the summer of 1958. But the patchwork of home-made and refurbished hardware was breaking down from the beginning. frequent bouts of downtime plagued the station for a decade. In 1981 that Class D status reared it's ugly head when 89.1 KMHD bumped them from their frequency. KRRC and moved to 104.1 where they sat undisturbed until 2002. More here, and here.

A christian radio station from Tillamook, KFIS-FM was changing it's city of license to move-in on Portland and was going to mow down the Tiny Tim of college radio stations in order to do so. Only a couple months later the Portland fire marshal paid them a surprise visit and found them in violation and closed their studios. They did manage to pull that one out and get moved to 97.9 at an even lower power. In 1992 they tried to make the best of a bad situation and increase their HAAT on the KGON tower. The FCC denied their request.

Then the unthinkable happened. On January 10th 2010, KRRC made it's plea on line with the following post:

"KRRC needs $5k to apply for a new frequency, the assistant treasurers are in favor of giving us the money, but ultimately it's senate's decision. If you care about KRRC, if you've listened to KRRC, if you like KRRC, please, take a second out of your day to send Senate an email. Tell them you want to keep broadcasting and keep KRRC alive....To put it bluntly, this is life or death for KRRC, if we don't get a new frequency, we won't be able to legally broadcast, and the FCC will take our license away..."

It was an even worse situation that the last time. This time it was Clear Channel. They're moving KNRQ all the way from Eugene, OR into the Portland, OR market. For some reason, despite prior concerns about station migrations away from smaller markets, the FCC has permitted this 100+ mile move. the legally dubious move-in stomps directly on top of KRRC. Grim is an understatement. In November of 2011, KRRC gave up the ghost and moved to an online-only platform.

Reed College tried to sell the doomed license, then an a clever more they donated the class D license for KRRC to a non-profit devoted to community group named Common Frequency. With any luck the new owners will keep the programming local and try to shoehorn the station into a new frequency somewhere on the Portland radio dial.

An Index of Acetates

2012-02-07T22:21:00.000-05:00

I've been digitizing about one acetate disc a week for a couple years now. I realized recently that despite the regular Tuesday schedule there is no way for a casual reader to search for them across my rather large archive of posts. So today, instead of adding to the pile, I've tagged them for easier searching. I tagged all acetates by the brand of blank, if the brand was uncertain, I didn't tag it beyond "acetate" and/or "Transcription Disc." In some cases, notably Voice-O-Graph, there are dozens under a single category.

The list is as follows:

Air-Tone
Audiodisc
Capitol Prodisc
Federal Perma Disk
Leach Disk
Musicraft / Duralite
Presto
Philco / Philco Safety Disc
Recordisc
Recotron
Red Cross
Rockola
Silvertone
Soundcraft Microlac
Studio d'Enrigistrement
Tonex
Tru-Kut
Universal (URS)
Voice-O-Graph/Mutoscope
Wilcox-Gay/Recordio

A Confirmed History of KSMU

2012-02-06T20:02:00.000-05:00

After writing the last post, it occurred to me to contact Dr. H. Charles Baker himself. He filled in all the blanks with a couple emails and a short phone call. He informed me that there was a pirate KSMU broadcast prior to 1955 which may have been as strong as 250 watts. It was that station which initiated an FCC action. So in their case, the legend appears to have been real. But those origins are before his tenure with the station. His part of the story was the completely legal and indeed orderly carrier current station. At it's perk he built it out to reach 16 to 18 dormitories. This was, certainly the largest audience for the station until they went online in 2003.

Below is a slightly edited email from the man himself:

-------------MESSAGE BELOW-------------

Jose,

Not knowing how much you know about this stuff, I'll try to go easy on the technical details. I was asked by my Department Chairman, Dr. Finley W. Tatum, about 1963 to see if I could help the students who were trying to get a campus radio station going. SMU had somehow acquired an FM transmitter which the students had operated illegally at some point in time. The FCC had told them to cease transmitting to avoid fines. I heard about carrier current radio and proceeded to help with the acquisition of equipment which would allow that kind of operation.

Working under the Student Publishing Company, we bought some low power AM transmitters in the 10-watt range. (I am not sure what the old FM equipment power was, but 250 watts sounds about right. I don't even know what frequency it was on, because I wanted nothing to do with illegal operation.) Our source was the "Low-Power Broadcast Equipment Company" or something like that.

The way carrier current works is that you couple the output from the transmitter into the power lines of a building, using capacitors with sufficient voltage rating to keep the 60-Hz. Power from getting into the transmitter. For any radio that is non-battery operated, the radio signal simple travels up the power cord into the radio. For radios that run on batteries, it works as long as the radio is near any electrical cord, lamp
cord, or wall outlet.

We were using Part 15 of the FCC Rules and Regulations, which allows anyone to operate without a license if they (1) don't interfere with a licensed radio station, and (2) don't radiate more than a certain level of radiation intensity for more than a certain fraction of a wavelength from the antenna (which was the power lines in the buildings). I chose a low frequency on the AM dial in order to have a longer wavelength and hence a longer distance for the maximum fraction.

A problem that you have when you use power lines for antennas is that the radio frequency won't cross a power transformer (from one building to another). Therefore, we had to lease telephone lines from the Umphrey Lee Student Center studio to each dormitory where we wanted to make our signal available, and we had to buy a transmitter for each dormitory. I used metal brackets to mount the little transmitters on concrete pillars or walls in the basement of each dorm.

SMU's buildings are connected by utility tunnels throughout the campus. I was concerned about radio signals sneaking into a nearby building through the tunnel system between dormitories that were situated close together. So to prevent interference between transmitters via the tunnels, I offset the frequencies slightly. We started up in 1964, so we advertised AM 64 (640 K-Hz), but it was 64 on many radio dials. Some dorms had transmitters that were actually 640, some 650, or some 660. I would use the different frequencies for dorms that were close. Also, I very carefully drove around near all of the dorms that had our signal, and tried to pick up our signal on my car radio. I could not, so I figured that we wouldn't get any complaints from anybody passing by.

We filed a notice with the FCC that we were using carrier current transmission and requested the call letters KSMU. Never heard from the FCC, so we did it anyway.

The system worked amazingly well. Students sold ads to local businesses to support the cost of the leased lines to each building and for subscriptions to record providers. The format was most "light-modern sounds" such as Ray Coniff. They also had some rock and roll, but none of the hard stuff. The Student Publishing Company was good to us in terms of new equipment, tape cartridge players, and other incidentals. I recall that Mark McKinney was the first student Station Manager, but he graduated about 1965 or 66. I don't remember who followed him. The Stations Manager took care of programming, sales, broadcast format, etc. I just did the technical stuff.

I accepted employment with Humble Oil & Refining Company (later known as Exxon) and left SMU in the summer of 1968. I later returned to SMU in 1980 and have been teaching there ever since.

H. Charles Baker, Ph.D., P.E.

A Dubious History of KSMU

2012-02-03T23:10:00.007-05:00

College radio is rife with stories of the FCC swooping in and shutting down the transmitter. Sometimes the narrative ends with the university selling off their license, or reducing the power to a more-or-less nominal level. There are hundreds of these tales, at least as many as there are stations. Over the years I've found a number to be true, such as the events at WXPN, and KDIC, but usually it's more of an urban legend, or at least a gross exaggeration... like this one told to me by a DJ at KPNI.

KPNI exists today merely as the online radio station of Southern Methodist University (SMU). 10 years ago is was also audible inside their student center over loudspeakers, the Umphrey Lee building, but even that has ceased. Link here or here. But their web presence is scattered to say the least. Twitter pages to up... and down; pages begin tweeting and posting, then cease. But long ago, this was a vibrant and powerful Dallas radio station...supposedly.

Some reports describe KSMU as being on air as early as 1947. This is probably not accurate. In fact, by 1950 there were only seven radio stations in Dallas at all: 1080 KRLD-AM, 1040 KIXL-AM, 660 KSKY-AM, 1190 KLIF-AM, 570 WFAA-AM, 820 WFAA-AM, and 1310 WRR-AM. Only one of those was even full time, KRLD. Some of dubious sources even cite the KSMU frequency as 640 or 760, the power anywhere from 10 watts to 250 watts. No matter what the station may have later been, it was in the 1950s and 1960s, a carrier current station. But the story after 1964 is better documented. In November of that year Billboard wrote up the return of KSMU, and it's formal grand opening, just not to the airwaves exactly...

"KSMU resumed broadcasting after being off air for nine years and operates on a frequency receivable only on the SMU campus. Cables have been laid to eight undergraduate dormitories and their carrier current is transmitted into the electrical system of the buildings. cables will be laid to six graduate dormitories next month. There will be 10 student deejays to broadcast music, news and public service announcements from 5 p.m to midnight Monday through Friday and 7 p.m. to Midnight on Sunday."

They used a feed from KVIL-AM to fill some of their off air time. But later in the article was a name. It is a name that comes up in every article about KSMU from the very beginning: Dr. H. Charles Baker. More about him here. But notice that first line... "off air for nine years". That would have them going dark in 1955. One more reliable source wrote on their now defunct history webpage:

"...KSMU's signal became unbalanced, creating an annoying hum heard over the campus airwaves. In 1957, the station alleviated the problem by installing an antenna that caused the AM signal to wander off campus. Unfortunately for KSMU, the signal interfered with the signal of KSKY, who immediately complained to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The FCC quickly revoked KSMU's FM license, making 1957 the last year for KSMU to legally be heard off campus."

If it was heard off campus, it was illegally off campus. Which would have raised the ire of any licensed broadcaster receiving interference. But to reiterate, there never was a license for KSMU, no AM, no FM, no Class D license, no LPFM, not even a CP. Even their illustrious return in 1964, was still as a carrier current station. This is sometimes listed as with dates other than 1964, despite the cut-and-dry 1968 Billboard article.) It is worth noting that they may have been carried on Park Cities Cable's public access channel around 1979 but it's an apocryphal claim that I can't corroborate. More here.

So the station probably "signed on" starting around 1955. I think the pre-1950 claims are deeply dubious. It was dark from 1955 to 1964, then dark again 1980-87 returning as KPNI in 1994. The new callsign was probably to differentiate itself from the legitimate licensed 91.1 KSMU-FM in Springfield, MO. The station converted to broadcast online exclusively in 2003. The FCC never took away their license, nor did the school sell it off. They may have caused interference to KSKY around 1957, and they may even have pirate broadcast a few times... but that may be just a fish tale.

First Broadcast from a Train (Part 2)

2012-02-02T21:03:00.005-05:00

Back in 2009 I posted a claim that the first broadcast from a moving train was staged in 1932. That post is here. A commenter rightly pointed out that trains did have wireless communication for decades before that. So allow me to walk back my post, and explain why I went with the 1932 date. Factually speaking, the Lackawanna Limited train tests of 1913 and 1914 were transmitted from a moving train. So I'll concede that point. Certainly any radio man with the right gear could have listened in. But I'll split hairs on one point: This was not a broadcast per se, there was no program of entertainment; these were all intended to be person-to-person transmissions.

The Lackawanna Limited train left New York City on November 21st, 1913. It was the first train in the world equipped with wireless telegraph. Tests were conducted that day and on several later occasions, probably at 1600 meters. On the same Lackawanna train on May 1st, 1914, similar tests were conducted by De Forest radio telephone.

On April 5th, Lackawanna conducted its a public radio phone test on a train called the Cornell Special, that ran between Ithaca, NY and New York, NY. It departed at 12:35 PM and arrived in NYC at 7:10 PM. What was public" about this test was that they had installed speakers in the buffet car, so that passengers could listen to concerts broadcast by the various radio transmitting stations. It was an unheard of luxury at the time. They also had a small transmitting set on board for the purpose of testing the transmission of messages to and from the moving train to amateur radio stations along the route. I'll quote at length from Railway Signaling And Communications, of April 1922:

"The set used was operated by two young radio experts, David W. Richardson of Princeton University, and G. Donald Murray, both of whom were in charge of radio station 3DH of Princeton University. The Lackawanna installed wireless telegraph service at Hoboken, N. J., Scranton, PA, and Binghamton, NY, during the fall and winter of 1913. The installations consisted of standard Marconi apparatus. Five kw. was used at Hoboken and 2 kw. at Scranton and Binghamton, using multiple plate quenched gap and the induced voltage was 20,000 at 500 cycles; wave length 1,600 meters. No difficulty was experienced in maintaining continuous communication and a large amount of traffic was handled. Early in 1914 telegraph sets were installed on the Lackawanna Limited. Motor generators were especially built by the Crocker Wheeler Company, to operate on the 30-volt car lighting service."

The antennae were removed at the beginning of WWI, though it was later re-installed. Wireless radio signaling quickly became indispensable there and everywhere.

Sunken Shellac

2012-02-01T20:15:00.001-05:00

The story has been told in several different books about the record biz. It's always told briefly, usually in the context of record sales at Capitol or Decca. the version in The Story Of Hollywood by Gregory P. Williams is just a single sentence. "Unfortunately, record's sales halted when the Japanese sunk a ship loaded with shellac." There's a version in The DeeJays by Arnold Passman that's just a tad longer. "...because of the sinking of a ship loaded with shellac by the Japanese in early 1943, Capitol was strapped." This sort of uncited, drive-by history is often wrong and usually incomplete.

So we start with the time line. When did Japan enter WWII? Not very simple because Japan had already initiated wars with China in 1931 and in 1937 with whom we were allied at the time. But Japan didn't become allied with Germany until September of 1940. No conflict with the story yet.

If you read up in old chemistry texts of the 1930s, you'll see that the primary producers of shellac in that era were India, Indo-China, Siam and the Federated Malay States. (Some sources also list Vietnam) Today we call them India, China, Thailand and Malaysia. Most of them still are as well. We just don't make records with it any more; instead we coat Junior Mints with it. (They call it confectioners glaze.) [source] But what doesn't ring true is one single ship pinching the supply enough to stop the presses everywhere. Because the harvest of any natural product is both seasonal and volatile, smart companies stock up on such mission-critical raw materials. How big was that payload?

What the story skips is that even before 1943 we were rationing shellac. In 1942, the War Production Board cut domestic shellac consumption by 70 percent. It limited them to the raw materials to press about 50 million records. Then they also froze prices at 1941 levels, there would be no price gouging. The only silver lining here was that labels could still press from their shellac stock, and sell the records already in inventory. In June of 1943 Billboard published an article titled "New Ruling Due July 1 On Shellac Allowance." It read in part:

"Many record company executives... consider it likely that the War Production Board will cut them off completely from any virgin shellac use. they base their view on the fact that the country's current shellac stocks fall short about 2,000,000 pounds the amount the army and navy require in the next 12 months... Some shellac has been arriving from India but the amount shipped has been small. India's shellac has been gathered and it amounts to 45,000,000 pounds."

Like many other goods, shellac has multiple purposes, and some are for the military. At the time, all electrical wire was wrapped in cloth and waterproofed with shellac. That sounds a tad important. In June of 1942 the War Production Board cut them back to 30% of their 1941 tonnage per month, then by August of 1942 they were cut back to 15%. It would dip to as low as 10% at times. This led to a couple reactions: stretching the virgin supply through use of lower grades, lamination, fiber cores, but also shellac recycling. In 1942 and 1943, some record labels began to hold "Shellac drives," with live entertainment where consumers turned in old records to be recycled into new 78s. Wartime rationing was finally rescinded on April 1st 1944.

While over 375 American ships were sunk in WWII just in 1943, [source] I can find no record of some massive shellac shipment that would bring the whole industry to it's knees. It was already functioning on a tiny fraction of it's normal supply, the contents of a single shipment would have meant only a trivial change in availability. When I have found a manifest listing payloads the shellac is usually listed as less than one ton. It's entirely likely that some supply ships were sunk. But while the supply-side bottle neck was very real, the single-ship theory is clearly bunkum.

Transcription Mystery Disc #104

2012-01-31T21:16:00.000-05:00

This is a 10-inch, Wilcox-Gay Recordio, clearly labeled to "Xmas 1946". It spins at 78 rpm and has an outer edge start. The narrator introduces the singers "Mr. and Mrs' Branch and Mr. Bowles are going to sing Oh Little town of Bethlehem." He breaks again in at about 1:50 to note that they're singing the last verse of Silent Night. The two gentlemen are very bassy, and Mr.s Branch is a bit off key. They break down giggling at the end. They're probably liquored up to be honest.

Xmas 1946

The opposite side of the disc is unlabeled but the narrator explains it all again. This time Mr & Mrs Branch with Mr & Mrs. Bowles, and a Mr. Bavall sing a medley of Christmas carols. It's not any more notable than the A side so I'll save the online storage and let you just imagine it.

One Radio To Rule Them All

2012-01-30T23:22:00.002-05:00

Since the dawn of wireless, the military has fantasized about one radio that can do everything. In January of this year Wired magazine called this their "doomed quest." The goal was to create a single radio device that can replace the numerous types of radios they use daily. In October of 2011 the U.S. Army terminated their Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS). The idea was to develop a software-programmable and hardware-configurable radio. Some of the spec flat out write that "The JTRS radio is to be a telephone, computer and router in one box." That sounds like a big box to me. Ultimately even reducing the requirements wasn't enough to control costs. One billion dollars later it was cancelled. So here is why it failed, and will continue to fail. More here.

The Unified Antenna

The problem is that this goal works against the laws of physics. One of the more obvious goals is to have one unified antenna. Having multiple antennas on a single radio is about as ungainly as having multiple radios in the first place. But using one antenna for many dissimilar wavelengths is...well it's just dumb. Any ham will tell you that a tuned antenna is more efficient than just a random length of metal. When you design an antenna to be effective within one wavelength, you do so to the loss of effectiveness in other wavelengths. JTRS was originally planned to use frequencies from 2 megahertz to 2 gigahertz. That's not a small piece of RF real estate. Here's a complete list :

Soldier Radio Waveform (SRW)
Single Channel Ground Air Radio System (SINCGARS) with Enhanced SINCGARS Improvement Program (ESIP), 30-88 MHz, FM, frequency hopping and single frequency
HAVE QUICK II military aircraft radio, 225-400 MHz, AM, frequency hopping
UHF SATCOM, 225-400 MHz, MIL-STD-188-181, -182, -183 and -184 protocols
Mobile User Objective System (MUOS): It is important to note that the JTRS HMS manpack is the only radio program of record that will deliver terminals supporting the next generation UHF TACSAT MUOS program. 85% of all MUOS terminals are expected to be ground radios, so if JTRS HMS fails, MUOS (funded in the billions) fails as well - unless a COTS solution is developed...of course MUOS has also had its share of problems, recently announcing yet another 6 month slip for launching its first satellite.
Enhanced Position Location Reporting System (EPLRS), 420-450 MHz spread spectrum
Wideband Networking Waveform (WNW) (under development)
Link-4A, -11B, - 16, -22/TADIL tactical data links, 960-1215 MHz+
VHF-AM civilian Air Traffic Control, 108-137 MHz, 25 (US) and 8.33 (European) kHz channels
High Frequency (HF) - Independent Side Band (ISB) with automatic link establishment (ALE), and HF Air Traffic Control (ATC), 1.5-30 MHz
VHF/UHF-FM Land Mobile Radio (LMR), low-band 25-54 MHz, mid-band 72-76 MHz, high-band 136-175 MHz, 220-band 216-225 MHz, UHF/T 380-512 MHz, 800-band 764-869 MHz, TV-band 686-960 MHz, includes P25 public safety and homeland defense standard
civilian marine VHF-FM radio, 156 MHz band
Second generation Anti-jam Tactical UHF Radio for NATO (SATURN), 225-400 MHz PSK Anti-jam
Identification Friend or Foe (IFF), includes Mark X & XII/A with Selective Identification Feature (SIF) and Air Traffic Control Radar Beacon System (ATCRBS), Airborne Collision Avoidance System (ACAS) and Traffic Alert & Collision Avoidance System (TCAS), and Automatic Dependent Surveillance – Addressable (ADS-A) and Broadcast (ADS-B) functionality, 1030 & 1090 MHz
Digital Wideband Transmission System (DWTS) Shipboard system for high capacity secure & nonsecure, line-of-sight (LOS), ship-to-ship, and ship-to-shore, 1350-1850 MHz
Soldier Radio & Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), 1.755-1.850, 2.450-2.483.5 GHz, Army Land Warrior program 802.11
Cellular telephone & PCS, includes multiple US and overseas standards and NSA/NIST Type 1 through 4 COMSEC (SCIP)
Mobile Satellite Service (MSS), includes both VHF and UHF MSS bands and both fielded and emerging low Earth orbit and medium Earth orbit systems and standards, such as Iridium, Globalstar, et al. Includes capability for NSA/NIST Type 1 through 4 COMSEC, 1.61-2 [2.5] GHz. May allow use of geosynchronous satellites with special antenna.
Integrated Broadcast Service Module (IBS-M). Currently three legacies UHF military broadcasts (TIBS, TDDS, and TRIXS) which will be replaced in the future with a Common Interactive Broadcast (CIB).
BOWMAN, the UK Tri-Service HF, VHF and UHF tactical communications system.

Antenna efficiency measures the electrical losses that occur while it is operating at a given frequency, or averaged over its operation across a frequency band. This metric depends on three kinds of loss: coil losses, ground losses, and other losses. (Let's not get into 'other') The antenna's total resistance is the sum of these losses plus the radiation resistance , which is the effective resistance representing emitted RF power. Antenna efficiency is the ratio between its radiation resistance and its total resistance. This will always vary with the type of antenna, the dimensions of the antenna etc. !

A Unified Amplifier

If you are using one amplifier, it has to operate across the whole spectrum of signals you may be tuning. But the fact is that wide-band amplifiers consume much more power than narrow band amplifiers. In this case efficiency simply describes the ratio of power in to power out. Then consider that virtually all power lost in an amplifier is converted directly into heat.You can only radiate so much of that out with a heat sink and a fan. Now try to imagine doing that in a desert. Houston we have a problem.

Tuner Selectivity

No matter how you receive a signal, that signal must be rectified. In modern hardware we use an DPLL (Digital Phase Lock Loop) circuit, sometimes an ADPLL (All Digital Phase Lock Loop). Undoubtedly JTRS was more vested in the even more ragged edge tech toy the SPLL (Software Phase Lock Loop.) With these, in theory, tuning is implemented by software rather than specialized hardware.In reality it has to control hardware and it's usually just synchronizing a VFO (variable frequency oscillator) or VCO (voltage-controlled oscillator.) Spectral purity is more or less contrary to the goals of wide spectrum width, producing an inevitable loss of frequency stability, and phase noise.

But there is a solution. They should be looking at this from a manufacturing point of view. In supply chain management the answer was vertical integration. The problem here is resource management, so the answer is horizontal integration. Instead of trying a one-size-fits-all solution, merging all services, instead merge only similar services. Belligerent MBAs asking engineers to fight against the laws of physics will produce a radio the size of a refrigerator that does ten things poorly for half a million dollars each. If you begin instead with the immutable laws of physics, start with signals that are decoded by software, who's signals can be rectified from the same or similar antennas or even modular antennas —you can reduce 20 radios to 10 or even 5.

Will Rogers and his famous Alarm Clock

2012-01-27T20:06:00.088-05:00

Will Rogers first appeared on the radio in February of 1922 at KDKA-AM in Pittsburgh, PA. He was accompanied by the Ziegfeld Girls, from Ziegfeld Follies. Ziegfeld Follies were a Broadway show that ran in New York City from 1907 through 1931. They became a radio program in their own right in 1932 as The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air. It ran until about 1936 and Rogers did occasionally make a guest appearance. KDKA wasn't exactly new, it had been on air as 8XK as early as 1916. Founder Frank Conrad received the call letters KDKA in 1921. This was a pivotal time in radio history. Radio was a new medium, and really before 1922, it was just a hobby. Will Rogers arrived in that crucial window when radio was first able to create national celebrity. More on KDKA here.

Will Rogers was the first king of all media. In 1922 Rogers was recording monologues for Victor records,and he'd already published two books: The Cowboy Philosopher on the Peace Conference and The Cowboy Philosopher on Prohibition. In late 1922 he began writing a weekly piece for the McNaught syndicate, who distributed his column to 5 hundred newspapers. He'd already been in his first film in 1918. So by 1922, At that point in time, Rogers had more to offer radio than radio had to offer to him. But in November of 1922, Rogers appears on a syndicated broadcast on NBC that reached an estimated 8 million homes. That was bigger than Broadway.

He started making his first regularly scheduled broadcasts in the spring of 1933. His program, The Gulf Headliners was sponsored by the Gulf Oil Company. Also called the Good Gulf Show was broadcast from 640 KFI-AM in Los Angeles. It ran for half an hour on Sunday evenings and by 1935 was ranked nationally among the top fifteen radio programs. It was said that he often lost track of time and was often cut off in mid-sentence. To compensate for his wandering mind, he brought in a wind-up alarm clock, cued him to wrap it up. By 1935, the show was sometimes referred to as "Will Rogers and his famous Alarm Clock." There were a total of 53 episodes.

Technically, it was actually his second try at a weekly radio series. Previously, the pharmaceutical company Squibb had sponsored a series of 15-minute monologues at KFI-AM in April of 1930. There were only 12 broadcasts before the series ended.

But getting back to the Gulf Headliners, its popularity led to certain problems. In January 1934, Rogers used the word “nigger” in a radio skit, referring to a song as a “nigger spiritual” and possibly up to a total of four instances. This was not the first time he'd used the word, Rogers had used it in print in his syndicated newspaper column as well.But this was the first time he had used it on the radio. Roy Ottoway Wilkins at the NAACP launched a telegram-and letter-writing protest campaign against the comedian. In response, Rogers switched to the marginally less offensive term "darky." (It sounds pathetic now, but prior to the civil rights of 1964 you could honestly call that a victory)

Rogers died in 1935 with aviator Wiley Post, when their small airplane crashed near Barrow, Alaska Territory. He was 56 years old. For more information, I recommend the book Radio Broadcasts Of Will Rogers by the Will Rogers Memorial Commission and Oklahoma State University. It's available here. It is a compendium of the actual transcripts of many of his radio shows.

The Midnight Jamboree WEVD

2012-01-26T22:32:00.002-05:00

The Midnight Jamboree sounds like another barn dance type of program. It's not. Host Gene King worked from 7:00 PM to 4:00 AM. That shift included "The Midnight Jamboree" and whatever else they threw at him. More here.

The Jamboree aired six days a week, and was sponsored by Alka-seltzer back in the golden era of late-night request programs. Starting in 1936, he hosted the program at least into 1941 running against the "Milkman's Matinee" on WNEW-AM. Some issues of Downbeat Magazine note the program still airing in 1958, though clearly with a new host. *Interesting note: the Midnight Jamboree and the call letters WEVD appear multiple times in the personal letters of Ayn Rand. Even while she recognized them as "pink" (a reference to communism) she remained an avid listener .

The Midnight Jamboree debuted in 1936, back when 1330 WEVD-AM still shared time with WBBR-AM and WHAZ. WBBR was owned by the Jesuits Watchtower Society, and ran all religious teaching. The share-time continued until 1957 when the station was sold, under some duress to Tele-Broadcasters, who only held the license for 2 years before selling 1959.That buyer, John Camp retained the license and bought WHAZ in 1973. Salem bought WEVD in 1979 then WPOW in 1984 finally unifying the license. They were the last remaining AM dayshare agreement operating in New York City.

Gene graduated from the Ohio State University in 1936, and made a bee-line for radioland. He learned his chops on WEVD. In that time it was owned by the Jewish Daily Forward,a newspaper that still exists but now owns zero radio stations. That was by no means the entirely of his career. He also did man-on-the-street" interviews for them in 1939. Still on WEVD in 1940, Gene King also announced for the "It Happened To Me" a daytime drama.

Then he went on to WOR-AM in 1940 under the Mutual Network where he came in as a DJ and left as the manager of program operations until 1947. He left that gig to move to Boston to be the Program Director at WCOP-AM in Boston. In 1951 he left that post to become the director of radio in Europe for the Economic Co-operation Administration (ECA). The ECA was a United States government agency set up in 1948 to administer the Marshall Plan. It was based in Paris. Prior to that he'd had some nebulous involvement with the French Broadcasting System (FBS) which operated on shortwave internationally. He became the program manager of Voice Of America, out of New York in 1954.

His trail peters out after that. From about 1965 to 1963 it seems he was the WCBS Radio program director, then was elected to the advisory council of the VOA English-teaching radio programs. Then he pops up again in 1971 joining the Council of Better Business Bureaus (CBBB) as program director, working out of Washington D.C. He held that post into 1974, then after that there's just nothing. A 1983 copy of the Broadcasting Cable Yearbook had him still there as the VP of broadcasting. He had to be in his late 60s by then.

I ♥ College Radio

2012-01-25T23:34:00.004-05:00

I was actually a bit surprised that the HTML heart symbol was permitted in the title field there. The iHeartRadio brand launched with the URL iheartmusic.com back in April of 2008. It was sort of a mix of ideas from the start. they were going to stream music to mobile devices and webcast 800 of Clear Channel radio stations online. The comedy here is that Clearchannel is simultaneously moving toward a national programming model where hundreds of these stations will be more-or-less identical.So as tech-savvy as it might seem at first, the content is about as edgy as cheese-whiz.

Last year they debuted the ability to make custom music streams, much like Pandora. Clearly they had figured something out about the content problem. Then I got news yesterday. Clear Channel was soliciting college radio stations to join their platform. This was unexpected. They put out a press release confirming everything on January 23. You can read it here. Sources report that they are negotiating individual deals with university and radio station representatives, indicating a level of motivation and interest that cannot possibly be generated by a sense of charity. The first college stations to get involved are below:

Appalachian State’s WASU – Boone, NC
Connecticut College’s WCNI – New London, CT
Dartmouth College's WFRD - Hanover, NH
Denison University’s WDUB – Granville, OH
DePaul University’s Radio DePaul – Chicago, IL
Emerson College’s WERS – Boston, MA
Flagler College’s WFCF – St. Augustine, FL
Green River College’s KGRG – Tacoma, WA
Ithaca College’s WICB – Ithaca, NY
Rice University’s Rice Radio – Houston, TX
Seton Hall University’s WSOU – Orange, NJ
Stanford University’s KZSU- Stanford, CA
Temple University’s WHIP – Philadelphia, PA
College of Wooster’s WCWS – Wooster ,OH

You will notice that not all of these are even radio stations in the broadcasting sense. Rice radio is the webcast that the students were left with after KTRU was sold off. WHIP, and Radio DePaul are all also strictly online. The rest are a mixed bag: WSOU is arguably the biggest college radio station in America, WERS is nearly as big. WICB is a large but rural college station with s strong commercial lean, KGRG, WASU, WCNI and WCWS are all rimshots to major markets lost in the suburbs. WFRD is in the unrated market areas on the Vermont and New Hampshire border. There is no pattern to this list, it screams shotgun approach, and these are just the early signers. There will be more.

What is the purpose? That's an open question.

Transcription Mystery Disc # 45

2012-01-24T22:07:00.002-05:00

This Wilcox-Gay Recordio has a very promising label. The words "test" and "radio" suggests it's a test recording from an early amplified loudspeaker. The home test recordings are often strange experiments and practice runs. The results range from comic flubs to amateurish narration to inexplicable noises. This one is no disappointment.

Test Melody Off Radio

This one has an outer edge start and spins at 78 rpm as you'd expect from the given date of 11/03/1942. The recording engineer does a radio band scan from wherever they were at the moment. The audio starts out with a pretty bland parlor music, around the one minute mark a crooner kicks in and he's bland too. At 1:07 he flips it to a comedy of some kind. at 1:19 it flips to a news broadcast about the republican nomination for a primary out of Baltimore, then at 1:39 he punches back to the crooner.

The audio is a mixed bag, I applied both a high pass filter and a low pass filter which normally I'd consider a gratuitous no-no, but I needed to remove both surface noise and enough of the indigenous radio static to make the verbiage intelligible. the rest is pretty good. If I knew Baltimore politics better, I might be able to corroborate the date or guess a location.

Best Chart Ever

2012-01-23T22:32:00.010-05:00

Because of a single comment on an old post here. I just got to see the best chart ever. All the Venn diagrams in the world can't explain the pace of consolidation the way Ben Bagdikian did in 1983. But this flow chart is strikingly clear. You can see the whole page here.

It spells out the eventual consolidation of a slew of old media groups: Jacor, CBS. Midwest, Citicasters, Gannett, Point Communications, Capstar, American Media, Viacom... and many others who all now boil down to just two conglomerates: Infinity and Clear Channel.

WKDU Vs. WPWT Vs. WEXP

2012-01-20T19:33:00.002-05:00

History is better than fiction, because the punchline is always that it really happened. The research for this post began here. Presently WKDU is a college radio station owned by Dexel University in Philadelphia, PA. As with all things, it had a beginning, and in the beginning there was no such thing as 91.7 WKDU. It began as a carrier current station with the informal callsign WMAX. Most sources date it's debut to 1958. In 1962 they switched to cable on 830AM as WXDT. It began broadcasting in 1970, but it's transition to FM came only from the fall of another station, and the defeat of another. There was a battle royale for the 91.7 frequency and WKDU was the last station standing. More here.

But there was a third station in this tale. WPWT was the radio station of Philadelphia Wireless Technical Institute (PWTI), hence the call letters. It was located at 1533 Pine St right in Philadelphia. PWTI had been operating since 1908 and is post-worthy on it's own. It wasn't a large school, though it was accredited by the National Association of Trade and Technical Schools (NATTS). It was lost accreditation in 1998 and no longer exists. [More here] PWTI had signed on WPWT in December of 1949, (originally on 90.1.) The book Philadelphia Radio by Alan Boris reports this as 1950 but it's sign-on is even clearly described in the November 1949 issue of Billboard as "earlier this year." They were the second FM station in Philadelphia which is quite an achievement.

But by the 70s it had perhaps 60 students at any given time. With a small student body it can be hard to maintain a station. So in about 1972 they began a share time arrangement with WXDT to keep the lights on. To share time The Drexel kids needed a real callsign to share time so they became WKDU with just 10 watts. They split the week with the 180 watt WPWT operating from 2:00 PM to 10:00 PM daily, and by all reports, the format was Disco. In the early 1980s they segued to Top-40. In 1981 WKDU gets FCC thumbs up to jump from 10 watts to 110 watts, escaping the confines of their Class D license. Spontaneously WPWT developed much better taste in music and began broadcasting a metal-centric playlist similar to WSOU.

At almost the same time that the WPWT/WKDU share time began, WEXP began operations from it's home on the campus of La Salle University in 1950. They too were a closed cable 1972, operating on 1600 AM. But they made a tragic misstep. In 1980 they made an ill-fated attempt at pirate broadcasting. Rumor abound about the actual wattage, but reports of listenership in Albany are remotely possible, but Florida is just absurd. It's highly likely they managed to cover a large enough portion of Philadelphia to notice. This event was viewed poorly by the university administration and the FCC as you might imagine. The operations of WEXP were halted for a few years. and it's schedule was erratic. But the station united in 1988 in an attempt to purchase the now ailing WPWT. Ultimately this was rejected by the University Budget Committee.Full stop. This immediately follows the first year that WKDU won "Best of Philly" Radio Station from Philadelphia Magazine. Ouch.

WEXP still exists today, but only online. Had they succeeded in buying the then 250 watt WPWT license, this story would have ended very differently. Perhaps WEXP would be a share-time with WKDU, or perhaps they would have won out entirely with Drexel students drifting away from the then puny 110 watt WKDU. Instead, in 1988 WKDU went stereo and WPWT ceased operations with WKDU buying out their side of the license. In1996 WKDU got the nod from the FCC to increase power to 800 watts... as reigning champion.

MOVIE NIGHT

2012-01-19T23:07:00.003-05:00

I came across this in my research yesterday but it's worthy of it's own post. It's a military training film about a certain New York radio station, owned by the Nathan Straus family. It discusses it's ownership, management and daily activities. On one side it's a strange little film that exists for virtually no reason, except to demonstrate the connections between Straus and the government. On the other hand it's a dandy little film about what was an independent radio station while we sit here in an era with precious few. More here.

A New World A-Coming

2012-01-18T22:33:00.003-05:00

Vincent Lushington "Roi" Ottley attended St Bonaventure University for two years, beginning in 1926 and transferred to the University of Michigan in 1928 to study Journalism. He stayed on there for a year and dropped out to return to New York where he attended Columbia and St. John's University for a law degree. It may seem like he lacked direction, but there was more going on than that. He grew up in Harlem, and only got into college on a track scholarship. In 4 years he went through four schools and at least 3 majors without completing any. But all along he'd been writing. He wrote for school newspapers and their literary magazines. When he returned to New York he started writing for the Amsterdam News. In 1943 he published he first book A New World A-Coming, and won a Peabody Award. He went on to publish five more books. So how does this relate to radio?

That gifted writer and later became a columnist for the Chicago Tribune and later a war correspondent in WWII. While overseas, he wrote for Liberty Magazine, PM and the Pittsburgh Courier; he made a bit of a name for himself. There were very few black reporters overseas. Some sources say he was the first. More here. But it was that first book, A New World A-Coming inspired an eponymous radio program on WMCA-AM. Some sources say that Ottley produced it, others that WMCA produced it. It's opening credits state that it was produced by WMCA and the "The City-wide Citizen's Committee on Harlem." It's most likely that both had creative input. But it was definitely narrated by Canada Lee (Ottley did narrate a few episodes) and it's theme song was written by Duke Ellington. The program was about black Americans, and showcased black literature, poetry and was at the same time vigorously patriotic. They plugged war bonds too. The 30 minute program aired on Sunday afternoons and the series was continued on into 1957. (Once source claims it ran into 1966) You can hear a few episodes here.

It featured accounts of African-American social life in 1940s Harlem and serving in the military during WWII. That gets back to that City-wide Citizen's Committee on Harlem. that group was founded by reverend John Johnson, Walter Francis White and Algernon Black in 1935. They were involved with the NAACP and the Urban League. It's wroth noting that by this time, the Urban League had already been producing radio programs such as "Minority Opinion," "Americans All," "Immigrants all," and "Freedom's People."

Collectively all these groups were trying to improve race relations, but they were also civil rights activists. In the late 1930s there had been a series off riots set off by police violence against blacks. To his credit, mayor Laguardia did not order a crack down. He reached out to the Citizen's Committee on Harlem. At this time Roi Ottley was reporting on these issues at the Amsterdam News. By the time he won that Peabody award, he was a big name in their community. In 1944 he became the director of the Negro Unit of the New York Federal Writers Project. These writings became fodder for his radio program. More here.

That's all very impressive but the leap to radio is the twist in the story. Nathan Straus bought WMCA in 1943 from Ed Noble, and became it's chairman of the board. Straus was the former head of the United States Housing Authority and Noble was trying to buy the NBC Blue Network and trying to ingratiate himself to the FCC. But even from the get-go it was expected that Straus was doing something different. The Billboard article describing the purchase was titled "Noble Buy Of WMCA From Noble Points Up Entry Of Public-Minded Into Field." He shared the board with H. M. Stein, the president of Davega-City Radio. The book Broadcasting Freedom by Barbara D. Savage described Straus as "a New Dealer with progressive views on race..." No surprise then that it was Straus who bought the rights to A New World A-Coming from Ottley to create the program. It wasn't his only black oriented program by far.. but for every program there's a story to tell.

Transcription Mystery Disc #108

2012-01-17T23:26:00.001-05:00

That is not a helpful label.The only marking on either side is the single word in large letters "Void." It gives the impression of a bad take or a dead mic, or a blank disc I always get curious about discs like these. This one turns out not to be blank. It has a comedian named Mortimer and a little piano work as well. But the noise on that is abominable.

The opposite side is all piano and vocal but the speed is...odd. At 78 rpm the vocals sound like chipmunks, but even as slow as 33 it sounds off. I have not satisfied with this one but I cannot accept that it was recorded slower than 33 rpm. Throughout this side of the disc, there are several interruptions where you can hear the sound of a tape jump. I suspect that this side is made of different takes from tape and some are dubbed at the wrong speeds, hence the irregularities.

It ends with someone humming and what sounds like a a baby cooing. . Then someone says "say goodbye folks" and it ends abruptly after a few more bars of piano.

WARNING STEREO RECORD!

2012-01-16T18:53:00.003-05:00

This label was a bit more orange back in 1966 I expect. I scanned this off of the Earl 'Fatha' Hines LP "Life With Fatha" on VSP records (Verve VSP-35). There was a mono version and the sticker was intended to distinguish them. (The recordings were actually made back in 1960.)

But the sticker is interesting. For a jazzhead, stereo mattered more so than other audiophiles; or at least marketing types thought so. But for a brief window consumers had a teensy problem. The stereos from the 1940s and many from the 1950s were made for mono. Even if they'd been playing vinyl records (or polystyrene), they were often 78 rpm as well. the danger here wasn't that the cartridge and amplifier were mono, it was that the tracking weight on the tone arm was intended for those 78s. You could measure it in grams instead of milligrams. Older phonographs tracked in ounces! That kind of weight could peel the groove off a record like an orange rind.

So the label warning label was appropriate, if not exactly stated accurately.

American Negro Theatre

2012-01-13T20:43:00.000-05:00

The ANT was formed in 1940 by Abram Hill, Frederick O'Neal, and some versions also include Virgil Richardson and (more on Virgil here) It's Headquarters was set up at the public library at 103 West 135th Street, New York City. In 1942, ANT began its Studio Theater training program for beginning actors. In 1945 The American Negro Theater became the first Black Theater Company with a weekly radio program.This series was produced by Ted Cott, a radio veteran. This was a really big deal. Time magazine wrote up the event in September of 1945 [HERE]:

"Manhattan's independent WNEW last week signed an all-Negro company to do a 13-week series of radio dramas, starting Sept. 16. WNEW said that it hired the group because it was good, not because it was Negro. One proof that the company, the American Negro (repertory) Theater, is indeed able: its Anna Lucasta is now in its second year on Broadway."

According to one source WNEW-AM auditioned 70 black performers and in what was then surely a rakish move also hired one player who was also half-Mexican. The American Negro Theater has both stage productions and a separate radio program. You'd recognize a lot of he names that came from this theater group: Sidney Poitier, Harry Belafonte, Frederick O’Neal, Ruby Dee and even James Earl Jones. Their performances included On Striver’s Row by Abram Hill (September 1940), Natural Man by Theodore Browne (May 1941), You Can’t Take It with You by Moss Hart (August 1946), Rope by Eugene O’Neill (July 1947), and Freight by Kenneth White (February 1949). You can see a complete list here.

While the plays were being offered, the company was also presenting opera on Sunday afternoons also on WNEW. Of course, drama was more common on radio in that era. WNEW for example had seven different drama segments on their schedule in 1945: Manuel Komroff, American Negro Theater, American Theater Wing, Easy Aces, Isn't It A Crime?, New York In A New World, and Side Street. In 1946 they cut that down to Five: American Negro Theater, Adventures Of The Spirit, So You Think You Know People, and High School Hour. Only two of them had sponsors. In 1946 Billboard curtly said that WNEW was unable to get sponsors because nobody could peddle that content to advertisers anymore. WHN in that same year cut all their drama programs entirely. It didn't bode well.

Despite the relative success that got them a slot on on WNEW, and the big Broadway success of a Anna Lucasta, ANT stopped production by the early 1950s. Notably, founder Frederick O'Neal went on to more political and civic roles off stage.

Radio Stock Update 4

2012-01-12T17:47:00.002-05:00

I read just today that Peak Broadcasting was headed into Chapter 11. It reminded me that perhaps it was time to do an update to my long-running series of posts on radio stocks. I've been checking in on the radio stocks that had IPOs in the 1990s to see how one might fare if they'd held onto those. Peak Broadcasting is a private company and I cant include them here, but there is plenty of other fodder.

As you can see very few meet or beat their IPO; Sinclair makes the cut, as does Saga. Many of the others have turned out to have been solid buys had to liquidity in the 2008 crash, but that's all too few of us. Radio stocks continue to be a dubious buy.

Clear Channel Communications CCU/NYSE
IPO 7/6/1994 - 29.9
Peak - 11/5/07 - 38.4
07/24/08 -WENT PRIVATE

Cumulus Media CMLS/NASDAQ
IPO - 11/16/2001 - 6.99
Peak - 4/23/2004 -22.25
10/15/08 - 1.77
03/02/09 - 1.82
12/22/10 - 2.27
12/15/10 - 3.70
Currently - 3.71

Saga Communications SGA/NYSE
IPO - 10/15/1993 - 5.4
Peak - 5/3/2002 -23.20
10/15/08 - 4.9
03/02/09 - 4.28
12/22/09 - 12.75
12/15/10 - 24.40
Currently - 38.39

Entravision Communications EVC/NYSE
IPO - 8/11//2000 - 18.1
Peak - 8/18/2000 - 20.0
10/15/08 - 1.3
03/02/09 - 0.84
12/17/08 - DE-LISTING LETTER
12/22/09 -3.39
12/15/10 - 2.49
Currently - 1.38

Citadel Broadcasting CDL/NYSE
IPO - 8/1/2003 - 20.09
Peak - 12/26/03 - 22.7
09/15/08 - DE-LISTING LETTER
10/15/08 - 0.26
03/02/09 - 0.2
03/06/09 - DE-LISTED
12/20/09 - DECLARED BANKRUPTCY
06/01/10 - EMERGED FROM BANKRUPTCY

Regent Communications RGCI/NASDAQ
IPO - 3/4/2000 - 13.12
Peak - 3/11/2008 - 13.68
08/16/08 - DE-LISTING LETTER
10/15/08 - 0.7
06/30/09 - DELISTED (Stock now trades on the OTC Bulletin Board.)

Cox Radio CXR/NYSE
IPO - 10/11/1996 - 7.2
Peak - 12/31/1999 - 33.25
10/15/08- 6.85
03/02/09 - 5.20
06/01/09 - WENT PRIVATE

Entercom Communications ETM/NYSE
IPO - 3/12/1999 - 29.68
Peak - 2/4/2000 - 65.8
10/15/08- 2.34
03/02/09 - 1.28
12/22/09 - 7.48
12/15/10 - 9.35
Currently - 7.21

Salem Communications SALM/NASDAQ
IPO - 07/02/1999 - 26.375
Peak - 04/23/04 - 33.08
10/15/08- 1.01
03/02/09 - 0.56
12/22/09 - 4.48
12/15/10 - 9.35
Currently -2.54

Beasley Broadcasting BBGI/NASDAQ
IPO - 02/11/2000 - 14.125
Peak - 02/13/2004 - 19.05
10/15/08 - 1.71
03/02/09 - 1.11
12/22/09 - 3.82
12/15/10 - 4.77
Currently - 3.38

Emmis Communications EMMS/NASDAQ
IPO - 03/04/1994 - 7.75
Peak - 12/31/1999 - 62.32
10/15/08- 0.60
03/02/09 - 0.31
12/22/09 - 1.23
11/05/10 - DE-LISTING LETTER
12/15/10 - 0.47
Currently - 0.72

Radio One ROIAK/NASDAQ
IPO - 06/02/2000 - 65.00
Peak - 06/02/2000 - 65.00
10/15/08 - 0.301
03/02/09 - 0.41
12/22/09 - 3.29
09/20/10 - DE-LISTING LETTER
11/22/10 - REGAINED COMPLIANCE
12/15/10 - 1.01
Currently - 0.94

Sinclair Broadcast Group SBGI/NASDAQ
IPO - 06/09/1995 - 9.54
Peak - 04/03/1998 - 29.81
10/15/08 - 6.64
03/02/09 - 1.13
12/22/09 - 3.66
12/15/10 - 8.36
Currently - 12.74

Spanish Broadcasting System SBSA/NASDAQ
IPO - 11/05/1999 -26.625
Peak - 12/31/1999 - 40.25
10/15/08 - 0.41
03/02/09 - 0.09
12/22/09 - 0.75
02/13/10 - DE-LISTING LETTER
05/01/10 - REGAINED COMPLIANCE
10/18/10 - DE-LISTING LETTER
12/15/10 - 0.74
Currently - 2.84

DJ Hubert Humphrey

2012-01-11T21:12:00.055-05:00

Hubert Horatio Humphrey worked at a variety jobs, including teaching at Macalester College, he was a pharmacist, and he served as a news commentator for radio station 1280 WTCN-AM, and managing an apartment building. It was only in 1939 that he got a BA, and then continued to a M.A.in political science in 1940! He was 30 years old. He went off and worked for the WPA after that and then ran (unsuccessfully) for Mayor of Minneapolis in 1943. In 1945, he was elected Mayor of Minneapolis and served until 1948, when he made a successful run for the U.S. Senate and he became Vice President under Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964. Rewind a bit, see that gap between 1943 and 1945? He was in radio. He broadcast the news nightly over 1280 WTCN-AM.

Actually According to the book Hubert H. Humphrey: The Politics Of Joy by Charles Garrettson, Humphrey had been on several other stations in his first run for office in 1943. He could buy a 15-minute spot on a small-time AM station for only $26. But there is little record of this time on air. So between runs for mayor, Humphrey became a news commentator, and ran an apartment building on the side. Maybe it wasn't glamorous, but he was biding his time, he was making a second go at it in 1945.

The station had come a long way before1945. It began as WRHM-AM in 1925 and was purchased in 1934 by Twin Cities Newspapers. They promptly changed the call sign to WTCN-AM. They were an NBC Blue affiliate until 1945 when NBC Blue became ABC,. they also carried some programming from Mutual. Under NARBA in 1941, WTCN was shifted from 1250 AM to 1280 AM. The station was using an experimental FM transmitter to simulcast while Humphrey was at the station. W9XTC operated on 26.05 MHz, but in his era it was run only intermittently. They tried again in 1947 with 97.1 WTCN but Humphrey was in office by then. He continued to do interviews on air in Minneapolis, but usually with the much larger station 830 WCCO-AM.

He did have one other broadcasting highlight.. In February of 1953, he and Senator Edward J. Thye were a part of a ceremonial powering up for WCCO-TV. They pressed the key in Washington, D.C.which "signaled" the power increase to 100,000 watts. WCCO-TV then became the fourth TV station in the USA to operate at the maximum allowable power. He left office in 1969, unseated by the evil empire of Richard Nixon. Humphrey returned to the senate, and not to radio. He died in office on January 13th, 1978 of cancer.

Transcription Mystery Disc # 33

2012-01-10T22:13:00.002-05:00

This disc spins at an oddball 39 rpm with an outer edge start. How do I know it's 39 rpm? Well for starters it's labeled that way and when I digitized it, the speed was clearly too slow at 33, and too fast at 45. So after some tweaking, my ear naturally found it about 10% faster than 33 rpm... so they were at least in the ballpark.
The Dixon Family

This Federal Perma Disk dates to October 14th 1945. Fred the engineer dutifully labeled both sides of the disc properly. He even left a note that the other side came out poorly so I knew not to bother with it. I the end I tried a few things with the audio and found a basic low pass filter to be the least offensive change. There was another minute of a small child named Marlene, warbling in the beginning that I tripped off, she was virtually inaudible with anything less than a harsh noise filter. Still quite audible are Fred, Toots and Skipper. At the end "Daddy Dixon" thanks Fred for being the engineer. However, if Fred had recorded this at 45 rpm instead, it would have sounded much better.

The Radilroad Radio Rules

2012-01-09T21:47:00.000-05:00

In 1966 The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway Co. and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Co. made a pamphlet to enumerate the rules for radio use on their rail lines. Mostly it lists FCC operating rules and it explains as much in the preamble (the typo is theirs):

"THE PURPOSE OF THIS BOOKLET WHICH CONTAINS BOTH FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION REGULATIONS AND RAILROAD RADIO OPERATING RULES, IS TO SERVE AS A GUIDE TO THOSE EMPLOYES USING RADIO IN THE PERFORMANCE OF THEIR DUTIES."

The railroad communications system rules covered the transmission of data between fixed points, moving points and between moving equipment and fixed points. Unlike most other applications, a railroad certainly has all three. It doesn't list anything as specific as frequencies I'm afraid, but it is a quick tutorial that was probably handed out to every yard man that might use a radio

You can download it all

HERE

The Trouble with WCQS

2012-01-06T22:54:00.006-05:00

About a week ago I read an article in the Citizen Times Newspaper [LINK] about the troubles at 88.1 WCQS in Asheville, North Carolina. Western North Carolina Public radio used to be branded as "NPR News, Classical Music and More." Earlier this year, their new executive director, Jody Evans effectively got rid of the "and More." WCQS became what Alan Bernard at Poormojo News Wire calls an "NPR Zombie." Their local programming was all but wiped out. Being a radio network this removed local and regional programming from not just one station but from all of it's affiliates and repeaters: W298AY, WFQS, W269AY, W237AR, W234AS, W218AB, W209AD, and W209AE.

Enter Fred Flaxman. Mr. Flaxman, is a former public radio and television executive who retired in the area. Previous to the troubles, he had volunteered to serve on the station’s community advisory board. That's how he discovered they hadn't bothered to have one for over a decade. That happens to be a violation of the 1967 Public Broadcasting Act.

After some urging, a programming board was formed, but Ms. Evans mostly ignored them. Then this year, made some radical changes cutting local programs like “Conversations,” “Byline” and “Evening Rounds.” She didnt' even both to tell them until after she did it. Flaxman and thirty others banded together and filed a petition with the FCC to deny their license renewal. This is a rare event, the only recent similar petition I can think of was pointed at KPFT following a big board shake up. So I reached out to Fred for some more details, and he was kind enough to oblige me.

JF: I'm familiar from your bio that you helped found WETA, and were also at WTTW after that. Could you tell me how you got started in radio? I'd venture to guess you didn't start at WETA.

FF: My first work in radio was for a campus station at the University of Michigan and as a paid script writer for WUOM-FM, Ann Arbor, writing what the announcers said for live concert broadcasts. I majored in journalism there and worked in public relations and as a newspaper reporter and magazine writer/editor before joining WETA-TV, Washington, D.C., as special assistant to the general manager. In that capacity I wrote the proposals that brought in the funding to put WETA-FM on the air, and then became its founding manager.

JF: Having worked in both public television and public radio do you feel you have a preference for any reason?

FF: Yes, I prefer radio because it is a more personal medium. It doesn't take lots of people and money to get things done. Television is more creativity by committee. Basically, I'm a writer, which is even more personally creative than radio.

JF: Did you have any connection to WCQS, previous to this?

FF: They did broadcast six of my "Compact Discoveries" programs as specials, shortly after I moved here six years ago. They have not broadcast any of my programs since. You can find out everything you might want to know about "Compact Discoveries" programs at www.compactdiscoveries.com. You can even stream the programs on demand via links to PRX, the Public Radio Exchange. You'll also read there what professional public broadcasters and listeners have to say about these programs.

JF: Ideally what should have WCQS been doing with their programming?

FF: Before making any major changes, they should have asked the advice of their Community Advisory Board and conducted surveys of their members and listeners to get their input.

JF: How do you feel about the syndicated NPR programs that make up their schedule now?

FF: NPR is a tremendously valuable service, but the future of local public radio stations lies in their service to their own local and regional communities. This is because satellite and Internet radio makes it possible to receive NPR programming without tuning into a local station.

JF: I have read that you helped found WETA-FM, when you look at that station today how do you feel about their programming in respects to their listeners in DC?

FF: I listen to them on my Internet radio and they seem to be doing an excellent job of serving the classical music listeners of their area. WAMU-FM in Washington, D.C., serves the area's audiences for public affairs, news, and talk programming. I advocated that kind of split of responsibilities when I put WETA-FM on the air in 1970, but couldn't get WETA to agree to it. I'm glad it finally happened for the benefit of the Washington, D.C., radio audience.

JF: In your vision, what is the ideal way for a public radio station to be programmed?

FF: It should be programmed with input from the public via a Community Advisory Board, surveys, letters, e-mails, phone calls, independent producers, etc. It should not be programmed in a dictatorial manner without such input, as has been the case here with WCQS.

JF: Are there any stations left still working from that play book?

FF: I hope so!

JF: Do you have any immediate plans in radio land?

FF: I love retirement and just doing what I want every day. That includes making radio programs out of my love for classical music. I sure don't want to be involved in management any more, and absolutely hate fighting with a local public radio station. But I know we could have a terrific station in Asheville if we only had management that was responsive to our great community! That is why I have joined with others who feel the same way to file the Petition to Deny with the FCC.

A Dubious Quote

2012-01-05T22:21:00.003-05:00

"The time will come, and that presently, when, by making use of the magnetic waves that permeate the ether which surrounds our world, we shall communicate with the Antipodes."

-Joseph Glanvill, The Vanity of Dogmatizing

That's how I first read the quote and like anything else presently that way I assumed it was true. It's usually described as the earliest prediction of the invention of radio. I've seen the quote in many texts, magazines and term papers. It first appears on the frontispiece of the book "Hello America" by César Saerchinger, first printed in 1938. It seemed believable because he was an early scientific and philosophical septic. Glanvill was a writer, philosopher, clergyman and early proponent of the scientific method. So the quote seems like something he would have written. It was the right time, the right place and he was the right man. Nonetheless, it appears we have all been pranked.

Famous as this quote is, it does not appear in his 1661 text The Vanity of Dogmatizing, nor it's 2nd revision Scepsis Scientifica. I have found a number of newspapers including the Florence Times, the Tuscaloosa News and the Register herald which all ran the same 1941 article titled "Amazing Prophesy" that probably propagated this myth. Harpers Magazine ran the same quote in an article that year as well. It's hard to say which was quoting which, but clearly no one bothered to check the source material. I even checked his other works including Sadducismus Trimphatus, Witches and Apparitions and Philosophia Pia. Inexplicably, it's just not there.You can see for yourself here or here.

I don't dismiss it entirely yet, but at the very least those lines either don't originate with Glanvill or at least not within that text. He does use the word magnetic a couple times but spelled "magnetick" as would have been common in that era. Likewise he writes "ether" as "Æther" and other similar archaic spellings. But I did find one quote possibly related which which the myth is derived.

"Now those, that judge by the narrowness of former principles and successes, will smile at these paradoxical expectations: but questionless those great inventions, that have in these later ages altered the face of all things; in their naked proposals, and mere suppositions, were to former times as ridiculous... That men should speak after their tongues were ashes, or communicate with each other in different hemisphears, before the invention of letters; could not have been thought a fiction. Antiquity would not have believed the force of our cannons; and would as coldly entertain'd the wonders of the telescope. In these we all condemn antique incredulity; and 'tis likely posterity will have as much cause to pity ours."

Glanvill's words (if they are his) didn't come true until 1932 with the debut of the BBC Empire service. [Antipodes is a now arcane term meaning two points on the Earth's surface which are diametrically opposed.] Maybe it was just that it appeals to our sense of wonder, and our profound belief in unrelenting technological progress. But the joke appears to be on us, courtesy of César Saerchinger, some 74 years ago. Congratulations.

Paper Radio

2012-01-04T23:27:00.004-05:00

Cross media topics are kind of a novelty unto themselves. How many TV shows can you name that are about radio, even tangentially? There was WKRP In Cincinatti, Newsradio, and Frasier. I think that's it. Radio returns the favor a bit as well: TV Confidential, and TV Time Machine on 1170 KCBQ-AM. Print media does one better, analyzing and examining the historical record of everything, Radio, TV and itself. But largely radio magazines died out in the 1930s and 1940s. Sure Radio World, Radio Ink and Radio Magazine are still published regularly but those are trade magazines. They're not in general circulation. there are a coupel irregular Ham mags out there too but I've found only one 'zine.

Zines are hard to define. They are generally self-published works, though they often have multiple contributors. They fill a narrow market niche, and are usually reproduced on a photocopier.Circulation is small by definition. According to issue #4 of the zine Paper Radio, only 100 copies of each issue were printed. That's real micro publishing. I bought mine at Ms. Valerie Park Distro out of Olympia, WA. The zine itself is based in Warner, New Hampshire, and published by DJ Fredrick.

Paper radio is about the art and history of radio. Issue # 8 reads in plain language "The goal of Paper Radio is to help readers connect and reconnect with radio. Unlike other mediums, radio sparks the imagination, it paints scenes with sound..." Topics include pirate radio, shortwave (WCBQ, CHU, WWCR, WRMI), pirate shortwave, DX'ing and in the few issues I have, they cover a slew of small local radio stations WNEC, KPFA, KMUD, KENC, WRKU, and WFEA-AM. More here.

Transcription Mystery Disc #42

2012-01-03T22:44:00.001-05:00

I picked up a couple booklets of mixed acetates so we're back in action here with an optimistic weekly Tuesday offering of archival audio. This disc is well labeled, at least with first names and a specific date. The discs include a set of recordings by a singing duo Betty and May. Someone named Skippy plays piano. This is one selected at random. The booklet notes that it's recorded at "slow speed" which turns out to be 33 rpm with an outer edge start. It was recorded on August 28th 1942.

The bed noise is a bit high, but I was able to diminish that with a low pass filter. The first side is the song "Gypsy" which was a single back in the 1940s. On the B-side the song is "With Someone like you" and Betty and May manage a skilled harmony, I don't recognize that tune. It may be an original.The first attempt is clearer and I opted to not use a band pass filter as it hacked off too much of their vocal range.

Gypsy

There's an introduction by the engineer, then sing for 2 minutes and then chatter, and do a second take and the engineer talks to himself inanely narrating out the last few rotations of the cutting needle.I am hoping the other discs are this good.

New Yr

2012-01-02T23:16:00.000-05:00

(Tomorrow we return to our regularly scheduled programming. )

Abandoned Radio Stations

2011-12-30T23:10:00.002-05:00

Unbeknownst to me, other more intrepid radio men have been investigating the ruins and documenting the remains of abandoned radio stations. Calls include WROD, WJLB, WMZK. (There's more on this daunting topic here at eham.net.)

JACSPAC Radio Facility Charts

2011-12-29T21:38:00.005-05:00

It says restricted across the top and bottom in italics. This is surely totally unclassified now, after all, I bought it on eBay. restricted is one of the 5 official types of government security classifications: Top Secret, Secret, Confidential, Restricted, and Unclassified. It was not available to the public, and that's about the only limitation that it's circulation had. Nonetheless, there is little information online about JACSPAC radio facilities, so I've scanned this for future research.

The acronym JACSPAC stands for Joint Airways Communications System Pacific Ocean Areas. I've tried several times but I can't make the initials spell JACSPAC, at least not in that order. *UPDATE: Dave at the Radio Heritage Foundation solved the Acronym puzzle: Joint Airways Communications Systems PACific. It was a WWII project, an array of radio navigation points. It was operated by the AACS (Army Airways Communications System.) Hard dates are hard to come by but AACS was founded in 1938 and was renamed the Air Force Communications Service (AFCS) in 1961. In 1979 it changed to Air Force Communications Command (AFCC.) It exists today under that acronym. Their alumni association has a website here.

Stations in the network included: WZJ (Hickam), KVM (Honolulu), WYVK (Christmas Is.), WYVA (Canton Is.) WVJW (Penrhyn Is.), WVJD (Aitutaki Is.), WVNE (Tarawa), WYVB (Nandi), ZKV (Tongatabu Is.), NXO (Bora Bora Is.), WYVM (Guadalcanal Is.) WYVQ (Espiritu Santo Is.) WYVC (Tontouta Airdrome), ZLG (Norfolk Is.), WYVE (Bougainville Is.) WXXT (Finschhafan N.G.) VZMO (Los Negros Is.) WZPS (Morotai Is.) WZPT (Biak Is.) ...and dozens of others. Stations noted in their Time Tick Schedule included: NPM (Honolulu), NPG (San Francisco), NSS (Washington), WTO (Brisbane), WXXU (Manila), and WWV (Washington DC)

The best part is that starting on page 26 the previous owner of the maps made hand corrections in quill pen where certain navigation beacons were inoperative, on other frequencies, or using other station IDs. Enjoy.

You can download all 67 MB

HERE

Coyne Electrical and Radio School

2011-12-28T21:19:00.001-05:00

The origin of the name Coyne lays with the brothers Coyne about 113 years ago. In 1899, the Coyne Electrical School of Boston started franchising. The first branch of its technical school was to be in Chicago. Other branches were later established in St. Louis and New York. Needless to say, Coyne College has had many incarnations. Just a few years ago it was called the Coyne American Institute. The 1908 Patterson's American Education directory just called it "Coyne's School." It was established in 1899, and in the 1920s and 1930s was the kind of correspondence school that advertised in magazines like Popular Science, Electronics World and various pulp periodicals. They still exist today, based in Chicago, Illinois with two campuses. In the 1960s they had moved up to advertising in Billboard. More here.

It began as the Coyne Electrical School of Chicago and opened in January o 1899. There is little public information on those early years but presumably they were hawking early radio knowledge, drafting and automotive skills. In 1915 they were "Coyne national Trade schools." In 1921 they were still billing themselves as "Coyne Trade and Engineering Schools." They started advertising radio classes in 1922. It's president starting that year and through at least 1955, was B.W. Cooke. He lists himself as a "manager" in a 1915 advertisement. Interestingly in 1926 through 1948 their ads sometimes list H.C. Lewis as the president of their radio division. Both of them put their disembodied floating heads on Coyne advertisements with various titles.

B.W. Cooke was also the publisher of Automotive News in the 1930s. He was the director of the Chicago Motor Training Corporation in 1925. Coincidentally both of those were located in Chicago. An L.L. Cooke ran an electrical school with a similar M.O. just a few blocks away. I cant' prove it, but I suspect a family connection.

In April of 1925, H.C. Lewis purchased 1200 WTAY-AM from Oakleaves broadcasting. The station ran at a puny 15 watts. It's original calls were WJOC-AM but had to change them to avoid confusion with WJAZ-AM. It had only signed on in October of 1923. The call sign was changed about a year later to WGES-AM and increased it's power to 500 watts. Their own literature claims that it was a full time station but in fact it was a share-time with WMBB-AM. The station caused enough interference in downtown Chicago that besides losing money, it also obstructed the reception of many other stations. Lewis tried to sell it, then practically gave the station to Joseph Gunyon in 1929. Lewis was later wrote "I see absolutely no value in a school operating a radio station..." For more on that read Educations Own Stations by S.E. Frost. Their radio program continued even without the radio station. In 1960s, the Coyne Electrical School merged with the American Institute of Engineering and Technology.

Regenerative Microwave Converter

2011-12-27T20:40:00.006-05:00

This December, Nihon Dengyo Kosaku Co. debuted a microwave regenerative converter for 2.45GHz-band rectennas. consumers don't think about it, but microwave ovens are fundamentally similar to microwave antennas. The primary difference is that a microwave oven is designed to contain the "broadcast" so it can be converted to heat energy when it encounters mass i.e. your lunch. This process is called dialectic heating. Don't be surprised this gadget was invented in China, the microwave itself was invented in Japan in 1955. It wasn't introduced to Americans until Amana imported it in 1967.

So here's how this widget comes in. Your microwave isn't 100% efficient. Actually if you've ever looked at it's power consumption you already kow it's a bit of a hog when it's running. That's because much of the microwaves just bounce around and dissapate, they are not all absorbed by their intended target. That means a portion of those aren't converted to heat and are totally wasted. An average consumer microwave oven consumes 1100 watts of electricity to produce 700 watts of power. That's an efficiency of 64%, though it'd obviously vary. To be fair a lot of that is just heat loss.

This rectenna receives the microwaves in your microwave oven and converts that surplus energy to electricity. The reason this regenerative converter works only at a frequency of 2.45 GHz, is that it's also the frequency that all consumer microwaves operate on. Commercial microwave ovens operating 915 MHz. I have read that some countries also use 433.92 MHz. This would be most efficient if it were used to reduce the power draw of the microwave itself, but it's as yet unknown if it will even go into commercial production. More here.

Making a list and checking it twice

2011-12-26T19:27:00.000-05:00

Everyone on this list has been very VERY naughty. It's not a surprise that Microsoft, CBS, Comcast, NBC, Sony, Disney, Time Warner, Warner Bros, and Viacom are in favor of censorship. (Godaddy was a bit of a surprise) These are media companies. They would much rather that tax dollars pay to police copyright infringement. It saves them money not to have to use civil protections. But as a result they are in favor of giving the U.S. government the power of censorship.

This is of course an abomination. Lumps of coal all around. If you have a few spare minutes, call, write or email a few of these unpatriotic bastards, or just boycott their products and services. You can passively vote with your wallet. Reddit has been kind enough to do all the foot work for you. It doesn't matter if SOPA is delayed, deferred or dead. It's their third attempt at this sort of truly evil tactic. It will be back. The backers paid out over 13 million dollars in bribes/campaign donations just this time. [source.]

Full List HERE
Boycott site HERE

Xmas

2011-12-23T17:44:00.000-05:00

Taking a long weekend to visit the fam et al.
We can all reconvene next week.

KZRH to DZRH

2011-12-22T22:15:00.000-05:00

The story of DZRH is unfamiliar to most Americans but one I find very interesting. Please take the time to watch a little documentary. The Philippines had a very long road to running their own media, and their own country.

FCC fines

2011-12-21T19:59:00.000-05:00

I'm not complaining. I've said repeatedly that the FCC is probably our most high-functioning federal agency. That doesn't mean the system is perfect. Their seasonal obsessiveness with fleeting expletives keeps them in the press, btu the day to day forfeitures are pretty pedestrian. Fines happen, and they can be big. But how big and for what? In forfeiture proceedings, the FCC can fine any person or corporation under the five rules below. You can read all the gory details of 47 C.F.R. § 1.80(b)(4) here.

(1) Willfully or repeatedly failed to comply substantially with the
   terms and conditions of any license, permit, certificate, or other
   instrument of authorization issued by the Commission;

   (2) Willfully or repeatedly failed to comply with any of the provisions
   of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended; or of any rule,
   regulation or order issued by the Commission under that Act or under
   any treaty, convention, or other agreement to which the United States
   is a party and which is binding on the United States;

   (3) Violated any provision of section 317(c) or 508(a) of the
   Communications Act;

   (4) Violated any provision of section 227(e) of the Communications Act
   or of the rules issued by the Commission under section 227(e) of that
   Act; or

   (5) Violated any provision of section 1304, 1343, or 1464 of Title 18,
   United States Code.

You can look up anything on the FCC website you might want. But what we see mostly are violations of Section 503. You can get them emailed you you daily with their broadcast actions if you want to keep up on who's getting the heat. Section 503 fines are as follows:

Forfeitures Violation Amount

Misrepresentation/lack of candor $37,500

Construction without authorization $10,000

Failure to comply with prescribed lighting/marking $10,000

Violation of public file rules $10,000

Violation of political rules: $9,000

Unauthorized substantial transfer of control                $8,000

Violation of children's television requirements             $8,000

Violations distress and safety frequencies rules           $8,000

False distress communications                                   $8,000

EAS equipment not installed or operational                $8,000

Alien ownership violation                                           $8,000

Failure to permit inspection                                        $7,000

Transmission of indecent/obscene materials                $7,000

Interference                                                               $7,000

Importation or marketing of unauthorized equipment   $7,000

Exceeding of authorized antenna height                       $5,000

Fraud by wire, radio or television                               $5,000

Unauthorized discontinuance of service                       $5,000

Use of unauthorized equipment                                   $5,000

Exceeding power limits                                               $4,000

Failure to respond to FCC communications                $4,000

Violation of sponsorship ID requirements                   $4,000

Unauthorized emissions                   $4,000

Using unauthorized frequency                $4,000

Failure to engage in required frequency coordination $4,000

Construction or operation at unauthorized location     $4,000

Unfair/illegal lotteries or contests                                $4,000

Transmitter control and metering violations                 $3,000

Failure to file required forms or information                 $3,000

Failure to make required measurements or monitoring $2,000

Failure to provide station ID                                      $1,000

Unauthorized pro forma transfer of control                 $1,000

Failure to maintain required records                           $1,000

Then there are a set of criteria for adjustments to those penalties. Some will increase your liability and others diminish it. Plausible deniability isn't worth much here, but good faith and compliance certainly are.

Upward Adjustment Criteria

Egregious misconduct
Ability to pay/relative disincentive
Intentional violation
Substantial harm
Prior violations of any FCC requirements
Substantial economic gain
Repeated or continuous violation

Downward Adjustment Criteria

Minor violation
Good faith or voluntary disclosure
History of overall compliance
Inability to pay.

The Christmas Flip

2011-12-20T22:21:00.001-05:00

I've written a bit about Christmas seasonal programming in the past. but today I intend to reveal statistics about this evil scourge of radio. the most recent count indicates that over 400 radio station sin the U.S. are running Christmas programming today. That's a little under three percent. It doesn't sound like a lot, but there are under 300 Arbitron radio metros, meaning that many cities have two or more 24/7 Christmas formatted radio stations. that's a bit repulsive. The debate has never been to flip or not to flip. The question is always when.We call the phenomena "Christmas creep."

Not all formats flip per se. Many formats ad a little mistletoe to the playlist as the holiday approaches, but there is a certain stable subset that goes all the way. This comes as a series of waves, each seemingly in response to the last. Adult Contemporary of all flavors stations make up the bulk of the ho-ho-ho. A few Classic Hits, Adult Standards and Oldies stations follow, then at the end of November the Christian AC and Christian Contemporary stations go with the flow. The complaint for years is that it's happening earlier and earlier every year. Let's see if the math bears that out.
FORMAT vs. QUANTITY

AC 25
Adult Hits 1
Christian 7
Classic Hits 1
News/Talk 1
Oldies 5
Smooth Jazz 1
Soft AC 2
Urban Oldies 1

I am taking the top 25 markets as a sample because sorting all 400+ Xmas stations is absurd. Below are all the Xmas stations in the top 25 metros. I know that requires the assumption that the top 25 metros are representative of the nation as a whole. I am willing to do that to avoid more math. I am also limiting my sample to stations that flip to 100% Kris Kringle. These stations more reliably make the flip giving me a better data set separate from all other variables. I have also merged Christian Con and Christian AC because I din't think the trades reliably distinguish between the formats, News and Talk get the same treatment as well. I'll follow the raw numbers with some pretty graphs I promise. This is only about 45 radio stations and more manageable. I have eliminated a few for not flipping consistently as they do not contribute data to trending in any direction. Because formats are not static, this is an expected anomaly in the data (see above).

I'm comparing 2003 through 2001 for no reason except those are the years that I have in my data set. And yes, I know that there are probably some errors in my data set. I am assuming further that we can discard outliers and press onward. In the final set I have 34 stations, and out of a churning 400 or so that's about a 8.5% sample... much better odds than they give medical research.(totals below)

I sumed the movement by year, then divided by the number of samples. In effect that averages annual change since 2003. Admittedly I have a much larger sample in the present than I have in the past, complicating matters, it sounds dubious but the trend line shows a pretty tepid trend that's believable.

Basically even the years with the largest samples still show negative motion, as in the flip occurring earlier than it did in prior years.The diminishing returns could be the earlier small sample set or that we have reached a point as which flipping earlier has an adverse effect on ratings. Ratings and profit ultimately drive these decisions. I'd like to discern the median flip date from each year and rerun this set of numbers as a double check... but I really don't expect a varying result. If you want to challenge me please feel free to use my raw data set. You can download it here.

News and Reviews 2011

2011-12-19T22:08:00.006-05:00

I've been writing Arcane Radio Trivia since April of 2005. That's over 1,600 posts, written over the course of more than 300 weeks.It's a strange hobby. 2010 has been a good year for this radio man. I sold some of my original photography. I put up a website for the band, VPN. I wrote a book. I moved. I digitized dozens of acetates. I read several dozen books. I read, I wrote, I published; ergo: I came, I saw, I conquered. So it has come time to reflect and review. It's a good time to look at my previous top 10s, and "Best Of" lists.

2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005

Best Posts:
My favorites are never my readers favorites. I really liked that post on the Alarm Klok Klub. back in September I wrote a mini thesis on the unstoppable march of voice-tracking. My absolute favorite was probably too tedious and dry for non-radio people. I spent a weekend collating raw license data for the last 10 years to tack the growth of satcast religious stations. The resulting post proved in statistics what I think everyone already knew.

Most Popular Posts:
Over the last six years, a post about a long closed radio school continues to be the most popular: Career Academy School of Famous Broadcasters. In 2011 the title goes to Vacuum Tubes and Thallium, a post I didn't expect would be so heavily read.What can I say, people just like vacuum tubes. The Cancer Inside Wikipedia continues to be a heavily read article, as does a short peice I wrote on radio exec Kevin Metheny. a bluegrass forum also sent me a large volume of traffic owing to a post I wrote on the tradition of barn dance style radio programs.

Best Music Blogs:
I really enjoy Noise for Zeros but it posts once a month at best.I more regularly read Built on a Weak Spot, honorable mentions go to Shiny grey Monotone and Enemy Lines Music. There is a world of music out there we never hear. Because of these bloggers I spend way too much on it.

Best Radio Station:
I have been very impressed lately with AFK M94.5, the student radio station of Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich, Germany. I listen to them via the Tunein.com channel on my Roku. I have no idea what the DJs are saying of course, but now I use a cellphone app; either Soundhound or Shazam to identify the songs. That may sound very web 2.0, but I still refuse to use twitter.

Best Radio Show:

The Funk Hub on 88.7 WLUW-FM from Loyola University in Chicago, IL. It runs Monday afternoons from 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM. It's a perfect fit for a crappy commute. The playlist is a mix of rocksolid, riff solid, international funk from the past present and future. It's not to be missed.

Best Record Store:
Criminal Records in Atlanta started the brilliant marketing campaign "Record Store Day" for that alone I give them the nod in 2011.

Best Record Label:
Hozac Records hands down, no contest, no explanation necessary.

Top 10 Records of 2011
1. Russian Circles - Empros
2. Graviton - Massless
3. Boris - Heavy Rocks
4. Noxious Foxes -Légs
5. Bass Drum Of Death – GB City
6. Will Haven - Voir Dire
7. Batrider - Pile of Lies
8. KK Rampage - Away From the Sunrise
9. Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears - Scandalous
10. The Black Lips - Good Bad Not Evil
Honorable mentions: The Fall - Greenway, Tom Waits - Bad As Me, Badbadnotgood - BBN, Plum - Hoax, Man Man - Life Fantastic, Battles - Gloss Drop, Young Widows - In and Out of Youth and Lightness, Mastodon - The Hunter, Gazebo Penguins - Legna, Cave In - White Silence, Skinny Puppy - Handover, The Psychic Paramount - II

Radio Hat Revival

2011-12-16T22:04:00.000-05:00

No comment necessary. I wrote about the original hat in a post back in 2007. You can read that here.

Don Burden

2011-12-15T22:04:00.000-05:00

There are movers and shakers you never hear about. They are the men behind the curtain, the holders of the strings, the property and the purses. the mars family for example is notoriously camera shy, and press-phobic, but run the largest confectionery company in the world. But radioland has it's own for sure. Today lets talk about Don Burden. I don't know Don personally, but the history of things gives me the impression that Burden was bad news. But it is those inflexible, unreasonable people who can truly excel. Consider Steve Jobs. He was truly spectacularly successful, but he was also an unrepentant asshole. So in the same light, consider the saga of Don Burden.

KOIL-AM first signed on in 1925 at 278 meters as a 1,000 watt daytimer out of Council Bluffs, Iowa. This is right across the river from Omaha so it blanketed that metro. They survived 28 years not unscathed, but at least undiminished before Don Burden came in from KWIK-AM in Pocatello, Idaho. In about 1950 Central States Broadcasting had to unload 1290 KOIL-AM to the Union Holding Company because the FCC was on a tear, actually enforcing ownership limits. (for once) But Union Holding Co. was based in Lincoln, NE and had some trouble selling enough ads to keep things running properly. Don Burden bought the station for $185k with just $5k down. He was 25 years old and probably more ambitious than is probably safe.

Burden promoted the station big time, and now with local ownership resumed selling airtime with zeal. he poached several of the popular staffers from KOWH-AM across the street. In fairness, they were in the middle of a Top-40 ratings war, and KOIL won. He bought up other statiosn including KISN-AM in Portland and WIFE-AM in Indianapolis. In 1959, he entered the FM band with 96.1 KOIL-FM. It began as a KOIL-AM simulcast, but in 1966 went to Beautiful Music.

But all along that successful path, Burden was making enemies, because he was an abusive prick. You can read some stories here. He grabbed DJs by the ear, and called them "fucking gypsies" and other even more choice obscenities. He could be set off into a profane tirade by a misplaced stack of tapes, or open beverage containers. He got results, but when you get them that way.. there is no one to defend you when you go down... and some of them are just waiting to get their revenge.

The mid 1960s he began manipulating their news coverage of certain political races including an Oregon gubernatorial race in 1966, an Indiana U.S. Senate race in 1964, and a number of other political campaigns. Fox News does this every day now, but back in the sixties this was illegal.[It still probably should be.] The FCC investigated ethics complaints against him. the charges in the end were just a laundry list of every nasty thing he'd ever done, the rigged contests, double billing, illegal gifts, and those political missteps. He was probably guilty of most of it. They shut down his entire radio chain in September 1976: KISN, KOIL, WIFE and KEFM (formerly KOIL-FM). They spared nothing. Many have said that it was the harshest punishment the FCC ever dished out. More here.

In 1976 KOIL returned to the air under new ownership. Burden managed not to be convicted of any criminal wrong-doing, but lost between $15 and $20 million dollars of radio properties. In 1978, he bought another station, 97.7 KPEN-FM, in Los Altos California. He had been defacto running that station since 1963 but he didn't own it so they couldn't take it away. He sold it off in 1983. He died in 1985 at the age of 56.

STOP CENSORSHIP

2011-12-14T13:56:00.007-05:00

Transcription Mystery Disc #106

2011-12-13T23:02:00.003-05:00

Phonozoic refers to this variant of Wilcox-Gay recordio as a Type 3A variant 1. His disc, and mine both date to 1947. For once I have a disc with a date written on it: 02-22-1947. It is a paper core disc that spins at 78 rpm and starts at the outer edge. It has two short tracks on each side. Most of the tracks contain nothing but room noise and motor noise. But there are bits that tell a story.
SIDE A:

SIDE B

The first side is a man trying to goad his wife into recording something. She does not. She starts with "hello mama" and quickly loses her nerve. But on the second side he harasses his kid, and the kid, is not nearly as coy. You can hear the man asking about "Artie King" and the kid keeps shouting "no!" things degenerate from there.

The Biltmore Agreement

2011-12-12T22:13:00.068-05:00

In the early 1930s there was a decline in newspaper revenues. somehow ignoring the Great Depression, newspapers blamed radio. In truth, advertisers were increasingly putting their advertising money into broadcasting. In the same way that Craigslist won the classifieds section from the news paper, radio took news. Radio by virtue of being live, could break a story faster than any print medium. This new dynamic deeply concerned the Associated Press and the United Press because print media were their biggest customers and radio was their newest. Newspapers were pressuring them not to do business with radio stations —in effect asking them to choose between them. In 1933 that actually happened, albeit briefly. Hostilities continued to rise. When CBS asked to be allowed to put a reporter in the congressional press gallery the old newsmen balked. (Radio was kept out until 1939) You can imagine at this climactic precipice, the parties vested on the radio side of things were ready to cut a deal.

On December 11th and 12th of the year 1933, William S. Paley of CBS and David Sarnoff of RCA met at the Biltmore Hotel in New York City with representatives from all the three wire services, ANPA (American Newspaper Publishers Association) and NAB (the National Association of Broacasters). But they could exactly write out a contract, that could be considered restraint of trade. It proceeded as a gentleman's agreement, collusion in other words. The terms were summarized very well in the book Media At War: Radio's Challenge To The Newspapers by Gwenyth L. Jackaway, with I further summarize for brevity below:

Networks were to cease gathering their own news.
The wire services would provide service to the PRB (Press Radio Bureau) to edit into announcements for use on radio.
Radio stations would pay for use of the PRB
Bulletins could be no longer than 5 minutes in length
Morning bulletins could not be aired before 9:30 AM
Evening bulletins could only be aired after 9:00 PM
New bulletins could not have local sponsorship
Urgent bulletins were permitted to violate the above
Radio commentators were not permitted to cover news less than 12 hours old

That lasted about as long as you'd expect. Local radio stations outside of NAB largely ignored the agreement, and larger network broadcasters felt pressure to compete and bent the rules. Newspapers returned the favor, by refusing to carry news about radio, unless it was slandering radio. That came to an end, only as newspapers discovered it was just easier to buy the radio stations...

Mary & Bob on the True Story Hour

2011-12-10T14:00:00.002-05:00

The True Story Hour was one of the first "romance" programs on the air. It was alternately called "Mary & Bob's True Stories." This was named for their sponsor 'True Story" magazine. the radio program debuted in 1928, and ran into 1931 on CBS as a weekly 1 hour program. It moved to NBC in June of that year and ran as a half-hour show, for another year. It had a second life in 1938 on the NBC Blue network, getting another year as a 30 minute show. In 1931, probably while the program was off air, Mary and Bob complied a book of their best stories. At the time (according to the introduction) they'd told over 200 of their tales on air. The book Dramas Of The Air complied by Mary and Bob went on:

"Old in the traditions for broadcasting indeed as history is reckoned, Mary and Bob made their radio debut on the first Friday night of 1928. Since that time they have gone on air each week with a new travel adventure which has prologued the presentation in dramatized for of a true story disclosed to them in the course of their week's travels."

The plot is that Mary and Bob are newlyweds touring and traveling the country. Bob was actually played by William Brenton,except when it was David Ross or Eddie Wragge, or Cecil Secrest. Mary was played by Elizabeth 'Betty' Wragge, and Nora Stirling. Nora and William were the original Mary and Bob. Eddie and Elizabeth Wragge and played the parts on the 1938 revamp. On that season, they were telling other peoples stories, no longer their own.

In 1932 two of the voice actors Cecil Secrest and Nora Stirling wrote a set of radio scripts for a spin off series. But "Mary and Bob on the Farm" was never launched. The new plot was that their travels were over and they were settling in for a rural life.They wrote at least three episodes with Roger Gray. You can see the copyright entry here.

Despite losing that series, they managed to work in the biz. Nora had been a radio writer, who among other things, wrote for the AFRS Mystery Playhouse program.Cecil Secrest performed on a number of other dramas such as "Home Sweet Home" which ran in 1930 on NBC Blue, Treasure Band wagon on the Mutual Network in 1943 and others. True Story magazine was discontinued in 1942. But before that happened, it became the basis for a radio series in 1935 called "The True Story Court of Human Relations." It was directed by none other than Erik Barnouw and was carried on NBC.

DJ Jacob Tarshish

2011-12-08T21:42:00.000-05:00

I have often wondered aloud why almost all religious radio in the U.S. is of a Christian eschatology. There is precious little else.It used to be so more varied. To that end I've decided to write a bit about some of these all too obscure characters from radio history. His program "The Lamplighter" appears in the indispensable reference book On The Air: The Encyclopedia Of Old-Time Radio by John Dunning. The entry is very brief.

"Jan. 3, 1936—April 14, 1941, Mutual. 15m, various times, with some gaps in continuity. Host: Jacob Tarshish. Continued into 1942 on the West Coast with Ted Yerxa."

Ted E. Yerxa is almost as enigmatic, a music columnist for the Daily News with a small record label. Both the record label and the column were also named Lamplighter. He put out a number of notable jazz sides in the mid 1940s. I was fortunate to find that the University of Iowa scanned a brochure for Tarnish which contained more information on his early resume. You can see it here. Jacob Tarshish was a Rabbi, and a radio personality in the 1930's. (He was even a member of the central Conference of American Rabbis.) He broadcast on a number of stations such as WCAH, WAIU, WOR-AM, WLW-AM and WGN-AM. His nickname was "The Lamplighter" and he was said to have had two million radio listeners.

OTRpedia claims he was born in Lithuania in1892. In 1932, after18 years of the rabbinical life, he quit to be a radio personality. He started out on WAIU-AM in Ohio where he had a program for about 5 years. Then became a news commentator at WCAH-AM. He got into WLW in Cincinnati in 1933 doing Sunday afternoon religious broadcasts. But this wasn't pulpit material, he was increasingly sociopolitical and high brow. In November of 1936, he spent one of those Sunday time slots reading aloud from Charles M. Sheldon's article Poverty Doesn't Frighten Me, from an issue of the Rotarian Magazine.

Rabbi Nathan Zelizer described him as "a very polished person" and "an oratory." But he also noted that Tarnish might not have quit his temple, he might have been kicked out for his commercialism. More here.
Over the years his sponsors included Dr. Edwards' Olive Tablets, Kreml Hair Tonic, and Kreml Shampoo, Zemo, and Zemo Ointment, Musterole, Bost Tooth Paste. Some of these products were cosmetics, others were more like patent medicines. He was now making a living speaking to groups just as an orator. That same promotional brochure listed off a litany of civic groups that he was hired to speak to.

"United Commercial Travelers Ohio Bakers Association Ohio Restaurant Association Mead Paper and Pulp Company The Food Growers of United States National Association of Sheet Metal Manufacturers Indiana Council of International Relations International Association of Motion Picture Operators and Stage Hands Ohio Canners Association Southwestern Ohio Teachers Convention Ohio Farm Bureau Ohio Parent-Teachers Association Columbus Junior League District Nurses Convention Rabbi Tarshish addresses annually over 300 audiences, composed of Service Clubs of all types, Fraternal Organizations, Women's Clubs, Churches and Church Organizations, Chambers of Commerce, Schools and Colleges and Graduation Classes."

I wish I had more information about his time in the 1950s. I can't imagine that his writings such as Judaism and Socialism (1929) went over well during the red scare. He died two days before Christmas in 1960. He was only 68 years old.

Art Linkletter's House Party

2011-12-07T23:18:00.031-05:00

You know that trite saying "Kids Say the Darndest Things"? That was Art Linkletter's fault. One of the segments on his "House Party" program, Linkletter interviewed kids between the ages of five and ten years old. It is usually claimed that this segment was unscripted. I have trouble believing that was always true. In the 27 year run of this program, he interviewed some 23,000 rug rats. I don't know when he picked up the segment, but it was before 1947. The show started like this:

"Come on in, you're just in time for the house party... and the man of surprises and a million laughs, Art Linkletter! Well here it is the middle of the week, and the House Party rolls along with it's 30 minutes of informal fun, games, gags, gimmicks and gifts and guests from all over the United States..."

The program It began running in the afternoons on CBS at 4:00 PM, on three odd days a week. In 1948 ABC picked up the series with GE staying on as the sponsor. CBS picked it back up in 1950 and continued to run the program until 1967. When it was sponsored by Pillsbury in 1950, it was the Pillsbury House Party. General Electric, the original sponsor had been content for it just to be named "House Party." From 1052 onward it was just called "The Linkletter Show" the name didn't' matter, it was always hosted by Art Linkletter. You can hear an episode here.

Arthur Gordon "Art" Linkletter was actually Canadian by birth, if you weren't aware. He was abandoned as an infant and adopted by a preacher that relocated him and hsi new family to San Diego in 1917. He didn't attend college. Instead he became an announcer at KGB-AM in San Diego. Back then it was on 360 meters bu tit shifted to 1210AM probably about when Art was on the air. The moved to1360 in 1942 later becoming the well known KLSD-AM. In his 1950 autobiography Confessions of a Happy Man, he wrote about KGB in great detail. Linkletter began as an announcer in 1933, and was promoted to Program Director just a year later, and then Station Manager by 1936. But that didn't stop him from leaving the station that year.

It was on KGB that Linkletter honed his schtick hooping it up and ad libbing with audience members.It was excessively wholesome by modern standards. But, while syndicated by CBS in most of the 1950s, the program had better than a 6 share in the Hooper ratings. By then the show ran Monday through Friday in the mornings at 10:30 AM. Linkletter hosted another, better known program at the same time "People Are Funny" which ran from 1942 to 1960. Under the title Art Linkletter's House Party, the show premiered on CBS television on September 1, 195. It's new sponsor was the Lever Bros' Company.

Both "House Party" and "People Are Funny" made the leap to television cementing his career in the new media. he died last year at the age of 97.

Transcription Mystery Disc # 46

2011-12-06T21:40:00.001-05:00

This is another 1960s-era Voice-O-Graph disc. Unlike most others it's clearly labeled both on the disc and on the sleeve. It does however, lack a date. It starts at the outside edge and spins at 45 rpm.

All The Way

The bed noise was particularly pronounced but I filtered off the worst of it making a readily listenable chunk of audio. I applied a very light high pass filter and a standard 900 Hz low pass filter. Leaving a thick slab of mid-range where most of the amateur recording occurred anyway.

The vocalist is doing a cover of a well known Frank Sinatra tune "All The Way" which was recorded in 1957. It was written by Jimmy Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn. This would tend to indicate that this Voice-O-graph belongs earlier in the labelography than I have previously thought. But, lacking a affirmed date, it remains uncertain.

Offshore Pirate Radio

2011-12-05T22:12:00.000-05:00

On towers in the Thames estuary in the 1960s a number of pirate radio stations operated. This a short documentary about the structures that housed them. Radio 390 for example was known to use one of these very structures. The station was shut down by a court order in 1966.

WFLN Philadelphia Guide

2011-12-02T23:31:00.001-05:00

WFLN-FM was the first FM station in the Philadelphia metro, unless you could WJBR-FM, which while technically in Wilmington Delaware, is certainly audible in the Philly market. WFLN was simulcasting on 95.7 and 900 AM. These are WBEN and WURD-AM presently. To promote it's shiny new FMiness, WFLN began publishing a monthly pamphlet called The WFLN Philadelphia Guide to Events and Places. It was a radio schedule with a bit of news, interviews, and some kitschy cartoons. It was a tidy little publication and they charged 50¢ for it and also carried a small load of advertisements. In that issue above (July 1963) advertisers include Pepperidge Farm, the Guardian Newspaper, the Philadelphia Electric Company (selling refrigerators) Folkway Records, Fidelity Insurance, and the Milk Distributors Association. It was in circulation until at least 1985. It began no later than 1960. You can read more about the WFLN here, and more about that whole Philly FM radio dial shebang here.

In December 1961 a new publication, the FM-Stereo Guide began publishing it's own schedule of radio programs in Philadelphia. Before the first issue even hit the stands, WFLN threatened to sue them. Billboard covered the spat, and the issue of a terse lawyer letter explaining that the guide has falsely claimed that WFLN is furnishing programming information to them. Ultimately the guide was to include information from 10 stations but not WFLN. They claimed that the FM Guide conveyed "a completely false impression to the public of the character of the magazine."

To our modern sensibilities, it seems like a gross over-reaction. But in the internet age, we have given up on the notion that the flow of information can be controlled. But there was no internet in the 1960s. While today no one would try to limit access to this kind of information. It's considered of basic utility. But back in the early 1960s, FM radio was the playground of audiophiles and this 48 page pamphlet was an income stream for the radio station. The leap to FM was no sure thing, and they were defending that investment prudently. For historical reference, and research purposes, I've scanned one issue. Read on.

Download all 50 MB

HERE

The Magnificent Montague

2011-12-01T21:14:00.090-05:00

In 1974, Billboard published an article claiming that as of that year, the Magnificent Montague aka Nathaniel Montague, had worked at 80 radio stations. He was a radioman among radiomen. He brought his style and personality with him everywhere, for better or worse. His career began in 1949 by his own recounting which means for 25 years he was on an average of 3.2 radio stations per year. It seems impossible. It might not even be true. By his own recounting in for that 1974 article, that he couldn't remember all the dates and places. He went on to say:

"For years I never lived in any one city more than six months. I was the original rebel and I had to move around the country because I was always getting fired for moving my mouth... trying to bring in unions, and things like that... That's why I consider myself a leisure time executive rather than a disc jockey."

And that' swhat most of the press blubs say as well. In Ebony magazine they plainly state that KSAN fired Montague and described him as "uncontrollable." But in that same 1974 issue, IBS was taking out two full pages to advertise his shows syndication. He was huge.

He's used so many different names on air: Rodney Jones, Georgie Woods, Fat Daddy, Chatty Hatty, Charlie Brown, John Hardy, and it was on WWRL-AM where he became the Magnificent Montague.

In 1965 he was blamed for the riots in Watts. Mobs of rioters in the primarily black neighborhood chanted "burn baby burn," a signature line for Montague. He had used it in reference to "hot" records. The Los Angeles Times ran a front-page story explaining where the "hep" slogan came from. The mayor and the police chief pressured KGFJ to fire him. Instead they cut his hours and banned his catch phrase. Then they cut his hours a bit more. Then whittled him down to nothing. It was no problem to Montague. He just moved onto another city and another station. Supposedly that scene repeated more than 80 times. I read everything I could find and I came up about 60 stations short. If you can add one please do leave a comment.

WVOM-AM Brookline, MA 1949
WHAT-AM, Philadelphia 1952
KCOM-AM, Beaumont, TX 1953
KTLW-AM, Houston, TX 1953
KCOH-AM Houston, TX 1954
WGES-AM, Chicago, IL
WAAF-AM, Chicago 1955-1957
KSAY-AM San Francisco, CA ? (apocryphal)
KSAN-AM, San Francisco, CA 1957-1961
KGFJ-AM Los Angeles, CA 1958 -1959
KXLW-AM St. Louis, MO 1960 - 1961
WWRL-AM, New York , NY 1962
WVON-AM, Chicago, IL
WEEJ-AM (apocryphal)
KGFJ-AM, Los Angeles, CA 1965-1967
XERB-AM, Tijuana, MX 1968
KYNO-AM / KPHD-FM Fresno, CA 1971
XPRS-AM, Tijuana, MX 1972
KPLM-FM Palm Springs, CA 1990

In 2003, Montague published his autobiography through University of Illinois Press. Think of it as an early Christmas gift to yourself. History matters. You can read about it here.

Massachusetts Reading Network

2011-11-30T21:57:00.000-05:00

I caught a short ID on WLLO around 2:00 AM and was surprised to hear that there was not a reading program but a reading network program which had been operating under my nose for years. After this ID they proceeded to read the highlights from the Boston Herald Newspaper .

TIC Network ID

The Talking Information Center turns out to be an award winning radio reading service. They broadcasts the reading of printed materials over a network of numerous affiliates including both radio and cable TV. Their programming runs 24/7. As I've noted in a previous post, reading services for the blind are few.

The network began in 1977, on 95.9 WATD-FM under the watch of Ed Perry. Knowing there were no reading services station in his area, Ed donated his SCA signal for that use. Ron Bersani, a teacher at Marshfield High School helped start the program. Their own biography summarizes these humble beginnings.

"TIC began broadcasting June 19, 1978 from a tiny third floor room at WATD with two borrowed microphones, a beat up cassette deck and an old reel-to-reel recorder. Broadcasts consisted of four hours daily, Monday through Friday."

While no longer part of the network today, they remain a great oldies station on par with WVLT. Three primary affiliates make up the network today:

1530 WVBF-AM
104.3 WRRS-LPFM
102.9 WLLO-LPFM

WRRS-LPFM is owned by the Berkshire Benevolent Association For the Blind, Inc.which is operated by TIC. WVBF-AM is actually owned by Rhode Island Public Radio engineer Steve Callahan. It signed on in 1981 as WCEG-AM, but was off air by 1988 and was subsequently deleted in 1991 under the ownership of Middleborough Broadcasters.In 1992 it was re-licensed as WVBF-AM under Callahan.WLLO-LPFM is owned and operated by Londonderry highschool. They aren't listed on the TIC website but that's where I clipped the ID so I am certain they are affiliated. They signed on in 2004 and are also carried on their local cable TV network.

Transcription Mystery Disc #31

2011-11-29T20:11:00.002-05:00

This 6.5 inch Recordisc brand acetate is in beautiful condition. There isn't a blemish on it, and the signal to noise ratio is excellent. It's one of the most listenable acetates I've ever digitized. It's too bad the engineers handwriting is completely illegible. It starts out DAWSEY ARS... then the next letter might be an "E" with the top two lines intersecting or an anemic "R." That's followed by a clear-ish "NA" then maybe an "E" on it's side or a stumpy "W", possibly followed by an upside down "Y" or a squiggle, and ending with an "X" or sideways "Y" or cockeyed "T". My best guess is DAWSEY ARSENAET. But it's just a guess.It spins at 78 rpm with an outer edge start.

"Strolling Down Memory Lane"

The audio and the performance are far beyond what could have been done with a home recorder by an amateur engineer. Phonozoic lists an identical label as Recordisc Type 2B, It's not certain, but since their later discs had fiber cores, the dates are probably similar, putting mine at a comparable 1946 date. The song is a version of "Strolling Down Memory Lane." The tune was written by Abe Burrows sometime before 1948. Burrows starts selling radio sketches in 1938 and spent four years as a writer for the program Duffy's Tavern. Decca released it as a B-side in 1947... so somehow this acetate postdates that... unless it's his own demo, which I doubt very much.

The Alarm Klok Klub

2011-11-28T21:18:00.001-05:00

That this show ever existed at all is baffling, that it ran for 30 years is even more unusual, that there were others just like it is inexplicable. Because of his tenure on the program, it's host, Frank Cope is recognized by some as the nation's first disc jockey. In 1930, KJBS-AM was purportedly running an an all-music format. That sounds non-specific by modern standards, but things were different then. KJBS-AM was an oddly licensed station, with two tower sites. It wasn't granted authorization to operate full time at 50 kw until 1977. So the Alarm Klok Klub didn't sign on in Hayward until 5:00 AM, but it ran until 8:00 AM. Like a normal daytime the station signed off at sunset. But then they signed on again from San Francisco at 10:00 PM, and off again at 3:00 AM. [info courtesy of David Kaye] This was to avoid interference with WTAM. More here.

The Author of Raised on Radio, Gerald Nachman grouped the program alongside the Milkman's Matinee, and with other early DJs like Jack Sterling, John Gambling, Al Jarvis, and Peter Potter.Frank Cope was born in Utah, and had previously worked at KLO-AM, which signed on in 1929. He started on "The Alarm Klok Klub" on San Francisco's KJBS on March 3rd, 1930. The program ran 6 days a week, only sitting out Sundays. Some sources claim that Cope left KJBS in 1952, but I prefer the date given by Bayarearadio.org, coinciding with the sale of KJBS to Argonaut Broadcasting in 1959. Rumor has it that he tried out at KSFO-AM but didn't fit in and moved on to the car business. He died in 1974, he was 72.

1020 KYW-AM launched a similar program in 1930, no doubt influenced by the Alarm Klok Klub. Theirs was called the "Musical Clock." It debuted on April 14th, sponsored by the Marshall Field Company. Sears picked up the sponsorship in 1935. It's host, Miss Halloween Martin, was just 28 years old. She was a DePaul University grad with a little acting experience who was then working at a news paper. She gave the time, temperature and weather every 5 minutes from 7:00 AM to 9:00 AM, and spun light classical, pop and jazz. In 1934, when KYW-AM moved to Philadelphia, the "Musical Clock" moved to WBBM-AM. The show was finally cancelled in 1944, and Martin crossed the street to WCFL-AM.

Chicago had at least two other "clock-type" morning shows concurrent with Martin's. WMBI a Morning Clock program that started no later than the mid 1940s. It was still running in 1986 hosted then by Bob it ran from 6:30 to 8:00 AM. On November 18th 1941, W75C began simulcasting WMBI’s programs on the FM band. they later changed calls to WDLM and they too carried the Morning Clock. According to author Arnold Passman, writer of The Deejays (mandatory reading) there were plenty more. At WBT-AM, Lee Everett was hosting the "Morning Clock" starting in 1934. At about the same time, in New York, John B. Gambling was hosting the "Morning Clock" on WOR-AM. Some of the programs were more zany than others. At WDAE-AM in Tampa, there was another musical clock program. This one had a time signal on the program which was the sound of a guy grinding his teeth. Ugh.

The Variety Radio Directory of 1938, lists yet more for which I have no other corroborating reference, "Alarm Clock" on KWTN and CJOC, 'The Alarm Clock Club" on CKCK, the "Alarm Clock Frolic" on WPTF, another "Alarm Clock" on KWOS, the "Alarm Clock Program" on KFJB, "Alarm Clock Revue" on WBRC, "Alarm Clock Salute" on WNAC, the "Alarm Klock Klub" on KIEV, and a different "Alarm Klock Klub" on KVOG in Salt Lake City. There was even an "Alarm Clock Serenade" on WICC. I'm sure there were even more, but this programming novelty has been dead for decades. In it's place we have the morning zoo, which is less novel but more local.

Fat Day

2011-11-25T18:31:00.000-05:00

Fat day is an unsung American holiday always celebrated on the Friday following Thanksgiving. As everyone that celebrated Thanksgiving with gusto on Thursday is too bloated and lethargic to do anything productive, it is traditional to sleep in and then eat a turkey sandwich. No post today. We return to our normally scheduled program next week.

*image is from an early 7" by the Boston noise rock band Fat Day. They rock.

A Fable for Turkey Day

2011-11-24T18:33:00.022-05:00

"The Turkey And The Ant", a fable told as a poem by John Gay, from the book The Experienced Butcher, published in 1816. Just something to think of while chowing down this fine festive day.

In other men we faults can spy,

And blame the mote that dims their eye,

Each little speck and blemish find,

To our own stronger errors blind.

A Turkey, tir'd of common food,

Forsook the barn, and sought the wood,

Behind her ran her infant train,

Collecting here and there a grain. "

Draw near, my birds," the mother cries; "

This hill delicious fare supplies;

Behold the busy negro race,

See, millions blacken all the place!

Fear not. Like me with freedom eat;

An ant is most delightful meat.

How blest, how envy'd were our life,

Could we but 'scape the poult'rer's knife!

But man, curst man, on turkeys preys,

And Christmas shortens all our days:

Sometimes with oysters we combine,

Sometimes assist the sav'ry chine,

From the low peasant to the lord,

The turkey smokes on ev'ry board.

Sure men for gluttony are curst,

Of sev'n deadly sins the worst."

An Ant, who climb'd beyond her reach,

Thus answer'd from the neighb'ring beach: "

Ere you remark another's sin,

Bid thy own conscience look within.

Control thy more voracious bill,

Nor for a breakfast nations kill."

W4WOW not JWOWW

2011-11-23T20:42:00.000-05:00

W4WOW, was the Amateur Radio Station located at the Science and Technology Museum (Scitrek) in downtown Atlanta, Georgia. It's trustee was W4QO, Jim Oats, former president of the International QRP Club. he's currently an active member of the the North Fulton ARL.

In it's heyday it was located at corner of Piedmont and Pine Streets, next to the Atlanta Civic Center. They relocated to Atlanta's Fernbank Science Center after being purchased by the Turner Broadcasting System (TBS), who donated it to Fernbank. It closed in 2004 due to lack of funding. It was transferred to Valdosta State University in 2005. It is now only an educational center for teachers and students. More here. It's not much of a legacy, but it's something. More images here.

In the context of those changes it's hard to say exactly when W4WOW shut down. SciTrek, the Science & Technology Museum of Atlanta was founded in 1988. they launched a website in 1997 which thankfully was cached by the wayback machine at the Archive. Because of that I know that the museum had pretty normal hours: Monday through Saturday from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM and on Sundays from 12:00 PM to 5:00 PM. But their radio program called STARS (SciTrek Amateur Radio Station) was only open "most days" from 11L00 AM to 2:00 PM. In an archived page they had a short description of the hams that ran the program.

"The station is operated by volunteers. Many of them are also members of some of these clubs throughout the Atlanta area: the Quarter Century Wireless Assn - QCWA, the North Fulton ARL , Gwinnett ARS, the Atlanta RC, and the Metro Atlanta Telephone Pioneer ARC - MATPARC."

A later list included the NoGaQRP Club. All of those groups still exist and all but one even have current web pages. But W4WOW is no more. But again, thanks to page caching in 2001 we even have a list of their stock pile of hardware...

Rigs: Yaesu FT-990 (HF), FT-736R (VHF/UHF), Kenwood TS-940 (HF), Yaesu FT-5100, and more

Antennas: Cushcraft A-4, 6m beam, 2m beam, WARC dipole - all at 70 feet or higher, GAP vertical, multiple VHF/UHF antennas.

Accessories: PK232 modems, SSTV software, computers

By December of 2001 it was a once-a-week program the last archived page before the move to Fernbank reads "Visit SciTrek every Saturday from 12:00pm-3:00pm to learn how to operate a HAM Radio Station and communicate with individuals around the world." I presume that the move to Fernbank was near the end of the program.

Transcription Mystery Disc #114

2011-11-22T22:20:00.003-05:00

Another week, another unlabeled acetate recording. This one is recorded at 45 rpm which only occurred with these later discs. It's in very good condition, but the recording levels are low so I had to take unfortunate steps to filter off a noise that sounds like some kind of direct drive motor.

"...we thank you for all the fine things"

The recording begins with an organ rendering a few bars of Yankee Doodle Dandy. Then a man with a thick accent thanks Emile and Martha for hosting their visit to New York. His English is clear but his grammar awkward. He names his wife as Mariette before passing the mic to her, then she says several things in a language I am unfamiliar with. Sadly it turns out to be more or less undateable from it's contents. But the blank is identical to a variant I dated affirmatively to 1959. It's no stretch to place it around that date.

Voice-O-Graph Labelography (Part 9)

2011-11-21T20:30:00.006-05:00

This is my eighth update to my Voice-O-Graph Labelography project. Today I have two variants and a little more information. These are, as so often is the case, undated. These two fit nicely into the 1960s set of discs in the labelography. the first is a Red-text variant of the Blue on White disc, what I'm labeling as the Red on White disc. I also have a variant of the Black on White disc that dates affirmatively to 1957-1959. This disc is identical except that it's center has not been punched out for a RCA Victor 45 rpm adapter. What is more interesting is that thsi un-punched 45/78 rpm acetate makes clear that the design of the Red on White disc has some features from the Blue on White disc and some features from the Black on White disc. It's correlative, but uncertain that this disc falls between the two in the chronology.

The extra holes in that one and the other early 45/78 rpm disc have 3 holes surrounding the spindle hole, similar to the Dictaphone layout. It is possible these were specifically intended for that device. Remaining work needs done in the area of date confirmation and integration of the anachronistic metal-core green label discs. I also do not discount the possibility of more color variants. [Contributions are always welcome if you know more.]

Red Top on Yellow: Unknown, assumed to be first disc1943?

GEM Mutoscope Disc: 1945?

Red on Yellow: 1943, 1944, 1945, 1946, 1947

Red on Beige: 1946, 1948

Red on Unbleached: Unknown 1940s?

Red On Blue: Years 1947

Teal-on-Unbleached : Year: 1948 (assumed)

Blue on Blue: Year: 1948

Black On Red: 1948

Black on Green: Years:1951,1953 - 1955 (also had metal core variant)

ESO Mutoscope Disc: 1950s?

Mutoscope Black Label: (45 rpm) Years????

Black on White (punched) (78/45 rpm) 1957, 1959

Black on White (unpunched) (78/45 rpm) 1957, 1959

Red on White (4 holes): Unknown assumed 1960s?

Red on White: Unknown assumed 1960s?

Blue on White: Unknown assumed 1960s?

Black on Yellow: Years 1964?

Black on Red: Unknown assumed 1964?

Yellow Label Unknown assumed 1964?

DJ Cuzzin Linnie

2011-11-18T22:22:00.001-05:00

A few months ago I read an all too short obituary for Cuzzin Linnie (aka Cousin Linnie, Cousin Linny) in the Dallas Observer. His friends just called him "The Cuz." It was said that Sam Cooke gave him that nickname. It was hard to cross the color line in broadcasting in the 40s and 50s. But for each format there is a demographic, and for Top-40 the DJs were as white as wonder bread™ in the 60s. Linwood "Cuzzin Linnie" Henderson broke that color barrier when he was hired at 1190 KLIF-AM. KNON's Weird Warren Harris once said that Cuzzin Linnie was the "first guy to play soul on a rock radio station..." It's a bold claim, but Harris was there and I wasn't. Sadly Linwood was only inducted into the Texas Radio Fall of Fame posthumously.

In all the hullabaloo between his tragic death and his hall of fame induction November 6th, the actual story of his rise to fame and his tragic fall has been lost. So lets get on with it. He started out at 1590 KPRS-AM in Kansas City, MO in the 1950s. He was born in 1937, so it was probably around 1958. KPRS-AM was the nation's first Black radio station west of the Mississippi River. It was founded by Andrew "Skip" Carter as a as a 500-watt daytimer with a transmitter donated by former Kansas governor, Alf Landon. I have no affirmative date on when he started there but the station signed on in 1951. The following year, Carter and Ed and Psyche Pate bought the station from Johnson County Broadcasting Corporation.It may be a coincidence, but In 1969, Carter became the majority owner and that's when Cuzzin Linnie shows up as the first black DJ on KLIF-AM.

In 1974 Linwood's career took a dramatic detour. I'll just cut right to the climax and work backwards. Allow me to quote the December issue of Texas Monthly, 1974:

"The arrest of KLIF's popular disc jockey — now ex-employee — Linwood (Cousin Linny) Henderson in September proved a cheerless and unnerving event for the station. Hendersonwas charged with (and later indicted for) two counts of third degree theft involving 37 stolen televisions and other goods valued at $13,000."

Despite the hubbub, Cousin Linnnie later returned to KLIF so his all-night show had two sequential runs with a brief interruption. It complicates his resume slightly. Consider it a brief interruption. He was at KLIF from 1969 to 1974 and again from 1977 to 1979. Where was he from 1974 to 1977? Was it prison? No, while I have no firm data on that, it appears he went straight to 105.3 KXXK-FM, then a pop station. In 1977 he crossed the street to 730 KKDA-AM a station known as Soul 73.

He remained there until station politics purged the staff in 1998. The year before that Dick J. Reavis published a texas guide book that mentioned The Cuz "The king of KKDA is "Cousin" Linnie Henderson, a thin, chain-smoking elder who refuses to disclose his age..." He let commercial radio in 1998 at 61 years old, and began DJing at the legendary non-com, 89.3 KNON-FM.

The Wax And Needle Club!

2011-11-17T23:49:00.001-05:00

The Wax and Needle Club ran for about two years. DJ Bill Evans ran this top 10 count down show of sorts. The station was 1000 WCFL-AM and the program was a half hour program that aired at 7:30 PM on weekdays running after a sports program and followed by a live concert in Grant Park. In 1949 it was preceded by news and followed by news and a serenade. A June issue of Billboard from 1948 describes the program cynically but with some detail:

" ...Bill Evans, the Wax and Needle Club, WCFL, reports a good mail pull on his quiz disk gimmick in which he invited teen-agers to submit the reasons why they'd like to guess the title of a different quiz disk on his show each night. Evans interviews the youngster and, if he can identify the disc, he receives a special Bill Evans album of current pops..."

Let me state for the record now that DJ Bill Evans is not the jazz pianist Bill Evans. Accept no substitutions. Which Bob Evens he was remains unconfirmed. My theory is that our Bill Evans is the one that was on 720 WGN-AM for years. [more here]. It was the right place at the right time, and it's very rare a market will allow two DJs to use the same name at the same time. My "evidence" is a 1948 advertisement in Billboard listing both WGN and WCFL net to Bill Evans name.

If I'm right, he was running the Bill Evans' Show 6:30 AM to 8:00 AM weekday mornings as early as 1953. A 1955 issue of Billboard put the start of his career as 1943 which works with the timeline as well. His morning program was re-named "Morning Reveille" and ran into the 1950s. His career started in Duluth, Minnesota. Teasingly his 1995 obit confirms that and at least two other stations. "After leaving WGN-AM, he purchased a radio station in Ames, Iowa. He later sold it and bought one in Lakeland, Fla." I confirmed in a 1958 issue of Radio Daily-Television daily that the station in Ames was 1430 KASI-AM. Interestingly they also state he quit 560 WIND-AM that same year... so we must add more to the resume.

As successful as these early teen target programs were, they also didn't fit the format of the era. Program Directors from the 1940s didn't know what to do with direct audience engagement. For them, getting fan letters was the full extent of quantifiable success... unless you showed up in the Crosley ratings. Call in shows were relatively new. Teens as a marketing demographic were strictly a post-WWII phenomena. They were totally unprepared. I found a few winners of his polls: Peggy Lee, Herbie Fields, Eddy Howard, and Mel Torme, This was no hot jazz or R&B program. This was safe, wholesome, harmless, homogenized white pop. Just marketing to teens was edgy enough back then.

The Protect IP Act

2011-11-16T20:47:00.004-05:00

Here I am politicking again. Let me just say this: The Protect IP Act undermines our right to free speech. I'm big on free speech. It's my favorite constitutional amendment. It gives a legal means for an authority to censor the internet at-will, and without oversight. In our highly wired world, that's no different than shutting down radio stations, printing presses or burning books. So tell your senators and Representative what you think.

That's the first problem. My second objection is that the Federal government should keep its nose out of civil offenses. Copyright violation is a crime, a civil crime. You do not go to jail for copyright infringement. You get sued, and pay damages. that's how the law works. When the government works to enforce copyright, they are working as the employees of big business, but taxpayers pay for it. That's not OK. It's big government in a big, bad way. In short, this is bad law, rationalized by poor legal thinking. I think the video explains the particulars very well.

Transcription Mystery Disc #37

2011-11-15T20:16:00.001-05:00

There is very little written online about Tru-Kut. The magesticrecord webpage just notes them under miscellaneous, and the only other image is on Hepcats Edsel page here. Neither has any information beyond a affirmed recording date of 1945, but neither does the above disc. Looking into the archives, I find them advertised in an issue of Playback Magazine in 1949, a purchasers guide in 1945... and that's it. Information is thin to say the least. The only other clue is that the two images on line (other than mine) note "F.M. CO., N.Y.C." The gist is that they were based in New York, and manufactured under the auspices of the FM company, whomever that may be.

I have to admit this looks like it's in terrible shape. But the recording is very inconsistent in wear. the above sample is from the best portions of the two sides. It's interesting that on each side the grooves are only cut in the middle of the disc leaving much unused acetate. The woman singing is genuinely tuneful and skilled. On the other side she's singing in harmony with at least two other ladies but with much higher levels. toward the end of the take they overdrive the mic and distort the audio, it ends abruptly.

"Fine Brown Frame" by unknown artist

The song is readily identifiable as "Fine Brown Frame" which has been done by the Johnny Nocturne Band, Nellie Lutcher, Ruth Brown and Lou Rawls. Originally it's by Buddy Johnson and his Orchestra with lead vocal by Etta Johnson. that was put to wax in 1946. This recording is faster and more frenetic than the Buddy Johnson version and the Nellie Lutcher version. It's really good actually, I wish the audio quality was better. I'd put this disc firmly between 1946 and 1949 leaning toward the later date because of the rock-ish, almost gospel-like cadence which was incredibly uncommon before the 50s. At the very least it's correlative with the one other affirmed Tru-Kut date.

Submarine Cable Map!

2011-11-14T20:08:00.004-05:00

You can see it here.

Greg's Cable Map is consolidates all the available information about the submarine cables, the backbone of our internet. You might think your ISP is the backbone. It's not. As much data as we move around the country, through various ISPs: AT&T, Verizon, Time Warner, Cogent, Level 3, XO, Comcast and whomever... bottlenecks remain between nations. That new Facebook data center is being built in Sweden. the bit.ly root servers are in Libya. half of the Wikipedia severs are at a data center in the Netherlands. You are just a local instance, the internet is inherently international.

So this free map is a nice resource if you're trying to understand how and where your data has to move. He's still tweaking it so don't forget to click the feedback button if you see something awry.

Radio GKB in Banana Land

2011-11-11T22:53:00.000-05:00

This one is hard to explain. Let's start with disambiguation. It has nothing to do with the GKB rail line, and nothing to do with Good Karma Broadcasting. This little pamphlet was published in 1938 by United Fruit just eight years after Sam Zemurray staged a hostile takeover. The pamphlet is addressed with a PO Box in Boston. It was written by James Mace Andress and Julia E. Dickson. While Dickson was also in Boston, Andress was listed as an editor at a school in Hygeia. There is no such place as Hygeia. But there was a Health and medical journal by that name which began publishing in 1923. It changed its name to "Todays Health" in 1950. Andress wrote a previous tome called "Wide Awake School" in 1931 which is probably related.

In 1901, the government of Guatemala hired the United Fruit Company to manage the country's postal service and in 1913 the United Fruit Company created the Tropical Radio and Telegraph Company. United Fruit began building a radio network. Their first station was WBF, which signed on some time before 1928. There's a great article about that here. There were a number of stations that relayed it's broadcasts: WBW, WBO, WBQ9, WCA-36, WCB-20, WCB-23, WCB-27, WNU in New Orleans wand WAX in Miami among others. But these were all maritime stations operating on marine telegraph frequencies. If the children ostensibly using this workbook were communicating with any of these stations, they were doing it in Morse code.

There was a GKB radio station and GKA. It operated out of Portishead, Bristol, UK on the Severn Estuary. But it was operated by British Telecom and had no direct connection to United Fruit. It operated from from 1928 until 2000. It even operated on single radio mast as the image on the cover indicates. But ultimately it is a child's workbook, I can only extrapolate so much. There may or may not have been a companion radio program. There may or may not have been a connection to the real GKB.

You can get all 41 MB

HERE

ELF vs. KRKO

2011-11-10T22:06:00.003-05:00

In 2006 I wrote a post claiming that there had been only two attacks on radio stations in the US, and that both of them were at KPFT, and that both of them were carried out by the same Christian extremist group. I have recently found that there is a third radio station attack, this one on KRKO-AM. But this one has a somewhat more dubious pedigree. It does not involve explosives, though the E.L.F., the group commonly credited, often used incendiary devices. Here's the whole story.

The E.L.F., the Earth Liberation Front, struck first on April Fools day 1992. In fairness I'll concede that the group traces it's own groups to prior work of other activists back to 1975. More on that here. The group was very active in the 1990s inviting the ire of the FBI. Fast forward to 2005, and several core members were arrested for multiple arson. The group lived on. More here. ELF almost always signed their work. Btu after the 2005 bust their U.S. activity diminished. There were just 2 arsons in 2006 and one anonymous arson in 2008 that's assumed to be them. Then there were zero in 2010, zero so far in 2011. But in 2009 there was one with their name on it.. but without the gas fires. The problem with a popular winning recipe is that it's easily imitated. On September 4, 2009, two out of the four KRKO-AM towers were toppled by vandals. A painted sheet was left at the site with the following words: "Wassup? Sno Cty? ELF"

It wasn't exactly verbose. But the ELF Press Office in Washington D.C. did later send out a press release. But the ELF press office, for obvious legal reasons, operates independently from the arsonist hippies that do the wet work. So their statement mostly just says that the act is congruous with their belief system. Their statement in part read

"Two radio station towers were torn down early Friday by the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) in the Lord's Hills valley in Snohomish County, WA. The towers, owned by station KRKO, have been a source of controversy for years. A sign left at the scene claimed responsibility by the ELF. Due to the health and environmental risks associated with radio waves emitted from the towers, we applaud this act by the ELF," stated Jason Crawford, a spokesperson for the North American Earth Liberation Front Press Office. "When all legal channels of opposition have been exhausted, concerned citizens have to take action into their own hands to protect life and the planet. For the past eight years, opponents have waged a legal battle against the towers, arguing that AM radio waves cause adverse health effects including a higher rate of cancer, harm to wildlife, and that the signals have been interfering with home phone and intercom lines."

In other words, they condone it, but can't take credit with any degree of certainty. The back story is that in August, a King County Superior Court Judge gave approved a decision by the Snohomish County Council for more and bigger and more powerful radio towers on that lot. There were all kinds of NIMBY actions fighting KRKO all the way. GM Andy Skotdal admitted "The testimony at the hearings was often very bitter and negative." But just late in the day on that fateful September 4th an FBI spokesman admitted that only one person was believed to have been involved in the collapse of the towers. He used an excavator to pull down the towers and that a neighbor chased him away from the scene with a shotgun.

The Skotdal family offered a $25,000 bounty that has so far gone uncollected. The station transferred its radio transmission to a backup site and remained on the air at reduced power. On September 28th, a follow up message appeared, spray painted on a building owned by the Skotdal family and visible from Highway 522. It also claimed responsibility for the ELF.

"MBA KRKO/Snotdol Empire. If you continue to risk killing children, mother earth and her creations, all your holdings are targets."

KRKO operated from the damaged site at full daytime power and reduced nighttime power until the towers were replaced almost two years later. In October of this year, undeterred, Skotdal lit up 50,000 watts of 1380 KXA-AM from the same location. GM Andy Skotdal is still uncertain if the ELF was actually responsible and neither is the FBI. It's been two years now, and there have still been no convictions.

EAS NOT SO EASY

2011-11-09T18:47:00.002-05:00

Only two words (and their derivations) in the English language begin with the letters EAS, "east" and "easy." The rest are all acronyms which includes "E.A.S." The Emergency Announcement System. Today at 2:00 PM was the test for that system. For the most part the broadcasters were on the ball. Homeland security however, screwed up. But we all already knew that Homeland Security was incompetent and useless; look at the TSA. There is no reason to expect that FEMA would get this right on the first try.

EAS Test 11/09/2011

What went out sounded like a success at first with the initial data tones but then that was followed by a few seconds of muffled, noisy audio with unintelligible multiple voices, feedback, then more layers of the data tones and the same mesage. thsi repeated in layers until it was a wall of static, feedback, distortion and white noise. That was followed by a few seconds of staticky silence, and then the closing EOM tones. Oh well it went better than CONELRAD.

Some areas reported no message, or an inaudible instead of the noisy message. But this clip above is by all reports totally typical coast-to-coast. What happened is that all the networked senders and receivers and all the broadcasters were working fine. There were some metro failures including areas south of Portland, OR. There have been no significant reported problems with either they weekly or monthly required tests prior to this. So, we know the problem stems from some failure in the EAN on the part of FEMA. EngineeringRadio.us reported a similar experience, more here.

OPINION!

2011-11-08T22:32:00.000-05:00

Radio World is a fine publication, and one that I read every week. This week, for the first time, I felt compelled to write to the editor. The opinion piece [link] that set me off is by Craig L. Parshall and it regards the John Milton Project, (not to be confused with the poetry performance of the same name).

His thesis is that religious content has some kind of innate right to be on all media platforms even when espousing deeply offensive or hateful language. This struck me as so appallingly entitled, that I had to respond. Knowing the topic, and the hypersensitive persecution complex of the group in question, I expect it will not be printed. But since I have a blog, I don't have to wait. The following is the complete text of my letter:

The right to free speech is a right to speak, not a right to be heard on every media platform you want. If a religious group's doctrine is so radical that a media platform feels uncomfortable you should look at the content. Are they propagating sexism, homophobia, or racism? In those cases it's acceptable for them to decline to carry your content. Dismissing this as censorship is arrogant and entitled.

Being stymied by Apple, Facebook et al. is frustrating no doubt. But it's the same response you might get from a print publication, or from a broadcaster when you bring them questionable content. This is not overt censorship. They are not obligated to taint their brand and/or their product with your hate-speech. If you want a media platform that is wide open to troglodyte opinions; build your own, the internet is a big place. There's plenty of room.

Jose Fritz
Arcane Radio Trivia
http://tenwatts.blogspot.com/

The Transformer (Part 4)

2011-11-07T22:41:00.001-05:00

Elihu Thomson was a geeks geek. It has been said that as a boy, his first invention was an electric friction generator built from a wine bottle. He became a science professor at Philadelphia's central High school. This wasn't a public high school, this was a differet type of institution they did, and still do, grant BAs in addition to high school diplomas. I explain that because he was a professor, not just a teacher. In 1880 with another teacher, Edwin Houston, he started the Thomson-Houston Company. He was 23 years old, and Houston was 33. They were focused on the new hot item: arc lamp systems. More here. This set a huge number of modern events in motion.

The Thomson-Houston Electric Company was founded in 1883 by a group of shoe manufacturers based in Lynn, Massachusetts. Those investors, led by Charles A. Coffin, bought out Elihu Thomson and Edwin Houston's American Electric Company from their New Britain, Connecticut investors. Like the Gaulard and Gibbs transformer, the Thomson-Houston had a number of patent conflicts. But unlike Gaulard and Gibbs, they had the backing to pull a Google and just buy up the damn patents. In 1889 they bought out Charles Brush and ended their biggest problem. More here.

Their 2nd biggest problem was Westinghouse. In 1886 Westinghouse took it's improved Stanley transformer and installed it's first arc light system in Buffalo at an existing Brush Co. station. That same year Westinghouse won out on a patent for AC distribution over Thomson-Houston. To his credit, rather than fight Westinghouse endlessly patent-by -patent, Thomson convinced them to share. By 1887 Thomson-Houston was manufacturing Westinghouse arc systems, and Westinghouse had a license to sell Thomson-Houston arc lighting gear. The deal lasted 2 years, ending when the Westinghouse patent was declared invalid. It didnt' matter, Thomson had been hard at work trying to circumvent the patent anyway. The MBAs call it coopitition now.

Thomson was on a 2-year tear, patenting more transformer models; different shapes, different laminations, different cores and eventually a core that sat insulated in an oil bath. When the Westinghouse patent died, Thomson-Houston patents were unavoidable. Westinghouse will owned the Albert Schmid improvements to the Stanley design, but they were otherwise in a sea of Thomso's patents. In 1890, Fleming wrote that there were 100,000 lamps using the AC dynamo in the Thomson-Houston system. He went on to describe their transformer.

"The field magnets are of cast iron, and are made in two parts, the lower one bearing the pedestals for the armature bearings. Each casting carries projecting inward from it one-half the total number of radial pole pieces. The number of polar projections varies from eight in some of the smaller sizes to twenty-two in the largest. The armature is a laminated iron cylinder, and has applied to its surface a set of flat coils which form one layer of double-insulated copper wire of square cross section. This armature winding consists of a number of flat oval coils, equal in number to the number of polar projections, wound in a lathe on special formers, and curved so as to fit the cylindrical surface of the iron core. There is a space of three-quarters of an inch or more In the centre of each coil which, in some machines, is filled with an insulating slip or core, and in others with a second separate coil used for exciting the field of the dynamo. The armature coils are securely bound to the armature core by German silver wire, and are covered with insulating strips of mica. These coils are either connected all in series and in series with the external circuit..."

You can see from that description that this transformer also draws heavily on those that came before it.Nonetheless the Thomson-Houston Co. patents were legit because they were narrow and specific. In 1892, Thomson-Houston merged with the Edison General Electric Company and history rolled on. In 1909, Thomson became the first recipient of the Edison Medal, bestowed by the American Institute of Electrical Engineers AIEE, what we now call the IEEE. He was president of the organization from 1889-90, and acting president of MIT from 1920-1923. He died in 1937. Edwin J. Houston was president of the IEEE twice actually, he took a different path, forming a consulting firm in 1894 with Arthur Kennelly.

There is a lot more to be said about Thomson-Houston and GE. I recommend the book Innovation as a Social Process: Elihu Thomson And The Rise of General Electric by W. Bernard Carlson. There were other important transformers that followed but most of them were a part of the natural progression to make components smaller. Here's a short list of models I didnt get into for those of you who are obsessive enough to read more.

Charles Brush Transformer - 1881
Lowrie-Hall Transformer - 1886
Mikhail Dolivo-Dobrovolsky Three-Phase transformer - 1888
Swinburne-Hedgehog Transformer- 1890

Oerlikon Transformer- 1891
Siemens Cable Transformer - 1891
Frankfort-Laffen Transformer 1892

Schuckert Transformer 1894
Elkhart Transformer - 1894

The transformer (Part 3)

2011-11-04T23:03:00.001-04:00

To his credit Westinghouse licensed both the Ferranti transformer and the Gaulard and Gibbs transformer. That's pure capitalism. He committed to a system (AC) and didn't trouble himself with the particulars. (In some ways it reminds me of Google's handling of their patent troubles.) But Westinghouse did bet on his pony, William Stanley. He had the good fortune to be the man who designed and installed electrical lighting at the 5th avenue Westinghouse offices. George's brother H.H. actually made the introductions. George Westinghouse liked his work, and hired Stanley as his chief engineer for his Pittsburgh factory in 1884.

In 1885, Westinghouse imported a number of Gaulard-Gibbs transformers and a Siemens AC generator for Stanley to play with. Using this as research materials (ok and a bit of patent violation) William Stanley, Jr. built his first transformer and funny thing...it was a lot like the Gaulard and Gibbs's model. For the record, he also had access to the patent papers on the ZBD transformer. But Westinghouse was still flirting with DC power and that infuriated the moody inventor. They weren't ready for a divorce so they got a trial separation in December of 1885. Under the new deal Stanley worked out of an office in Massachusetts. By March he had lit up a small neighborhood with his transformer and an AC generator. It was the first such system in America. The book Networks Of Power by Thomas Parke Hughes described it in detail:

"The length of the transmission circuit from central station laboratory to village center was about 4,000 feet. Connected to it were thirteen stores, two doctors' offices, one barber shop, the telephone exchange, and the post office."

His claim to the first electrification of a network is indisputable. But what parts were actually his own? The generator was a Seimens and the transformers derived from Gaulard-Gibbs.This is hard to say for certain, but this is the system that Westinghouse mass manufactured and installed for a decade. Maybe I should back up a bit. In 1872 Electrical world was already reviewing a Mordey Transformer. William Morris Mordey’s transformers were manufactured by the Brush Electrical Engineering Company. This type of transformer is called a "shell transformer" beacuse the coils are completely surrounded by iron (except the ends).His electrical work was so important that a magnetic field behavior in dynamos was named for him.

Mordey Effect (noun) A phenomenon observed in dynamo armatures. At full loads the hysteresis decreases. The effect is thus expressed by S. P. Thompson. "When an armature core is rotated in a strong magnetic field, the magnetization of the iron is being continually carried through a cycle, but in a manner quite different from that in which it is carried when the magnetizing force is periodically reversed, as in the core of a transformer. Mordey has found the losses by hysteresis to be somewhat smaller in the former case than in the latter."

Both the Ferranti model and the Westinghouse model descended from Stanley's patents are also similar to the Mordey transformer. In all three models the circuit is made of thin rectangular iron plates, with coils wound through punched holes. So they're all manufactured and assembled about the same way. The obvious difference among all the models I've mentioned is that the Gaulard and Gibbs model was an open circuit. All the others were closed. I think the incestuous nature of these developments is pretty clear now. But lets get to the reason I need a part 4 for this series:

There were three large American companies making transformers by 1890: Edison, Westinghouse were fighting AC vs. DC. But there was a third; The Thomson -Houston Company. In 1892, financier J.P. Morgan engineered a merger between the Edison interests and Thomson-Houston. The resulting company was named General Electric. More on their role Monday.