Broadcast Enginers on AM fone?

[WU2D]

I dabbled in broadcasting some in college in the frozen north country of Potsdam in the 70's. i started out as a weekend DJ for the FM station on campus WTSC, then got involved in the tech support for the carrier current station WNTC. Got my 2nd class and became a transmitter engineer with the privilege of XC skiing out to the transmitter shack a few times a week to take transmitter readings.    Later I got my first and radar endorsement. Having been a ham for about 7+ years at that point, I had more working knowledge of the hardware than many of the more senior folks at the station.

I grew up in Potsdam and Canton. My best friend's dad was Dave Cady the main DJ at WPDM. His son WN2VJZ now KK4DDT and I got our novices at the same time in the early 70's. He now has a DX station just outside Atlanta but we still do CW on 80M and he is still using an ARC-5 (like we had as novices) when we do QSO for nostalgia. I got my second class and actually thought of using it at WPDM or KSLU back when I was at ATC but never did go that way. Did you know Dave Chavaustie (a ham from Binghamton) or Lamar Bliss? both were at KSLU. 

Mike WU2D

[k9qi]

I did a lot of broadcast work in the 1970's (high school) and through the early 1990's while with Motorola on the AM stereo project.  I have visited close to 500 broadcast facilities over my 35+ years worldwide and have worked on just baout everythign out there from a 10w shortwave transmitter in Canada to a 1MW water cooled composite linear in Hangzhou, China.  I am part owner of a small AM in central WI (now with a FM translator). 

I also worked on the NRSC committee in the 1980's; I proposed the NRSC pre-emphasis curve (modified 75uS) and the modified RF emissions mask that was adopted and is part of the current FCC rules 73.44 and 73.128.

Partial list of transmitters worked on:  Gates/Harris MW50 (various flavors), MW5/10, BC5P, BC10P, 250GY, 500, 1H, 1T (many more "1's), MW1, SX1, 2.5, and 5, Vangard (1kW linear), VP50, VP100, DX10, DX50, 3DX50; RCA BTA1R/1R1/1R2 / 1R3/ 1S, BTA5H, J, T, BTA50F (one of my favorites), 5, 10, and 50kW Ampliphase, the ill-fated BTA5SS; BTA250K, 250L, 250M, 500MX, Collins 20V/V1/V2/V3, 300G, 300J, 21E/M, 820D, 820E/F, Continental 828/314R, 316E/F (Grid modulated Doherty), 317B (Weldon Doherty), 317C/C1/C2/C3 (Sainton screen modulated Doherty - another favorite of mine), 318, 318.5,Bauer and copies at 1kW, 5kW (including a beast that had 4-1000s in mod and PA), a screen-modulated quad 4-400 1kW box from the early 1960's (forget the model number), Nautels of all flavors from the P400 up to the big 50kW's (love the P-400; wish i could find one to purchase), other odd-balls like McMartin 1 and 5kW, AEL 50kW in Sundbury, Ont., Raytheon RA250 and RA1000, Western Electric water and air-cooled rigs, Westinghouse 50kW, and many many more. 

This was a unique chance that I am forever greatful for.  The project was mildly successful for a while but it gave me the chance to meet and work with some of tehfinest in broadcasting:  Bob Orban or Orban Associates, Ron JOnes and Gary Clarkson of CRL, and Mike Dorrough of course.  I learned audio from some of those greats as well as golden ears like Gregg Oganowski, Ed Butterbaugh, and many more.  On the trasnmitter side, I worked and traveled with Joe Sainton and Jimmy Weldon at Continental, Jack Sellmeyer, formerly of Collins and Cintinental Electronics, Hilmer Swanson at Harris, J Fred Reily and Dave Hirshburger of Harris and CE fame, and my mentors form Motorola:  Frank Hilbert and Norman Parker.  I also was able to meet Leonard Kahn - not always int eh best light, but I certainly met him!  There are so manhy other broadcast people that I met and worked with - so many of them were mentors to me.

I also must mention others also still with us:  Stand Salek of Hammett and Edison and Jim Carollo of WGN radio in Chicago. 

So...did I ever work as a CE for a radio station?  Other than the one I have shares in, no.  But, I certanly had the experiences of a CE!

[K5UJ]

Greg, in all your travels, did you ever come across a Friese Audio Pilot?  If so, I'd like for you to comment on what you thought of it and how well it worked given its time in history.  Hope you have more stuff for sale at Dayton.  tnx

Rob

[WA3VJB]

300G

Do tell !

I've been involved with a handful of them, from Ser. No. 22 through Ser. No. 147.

Stories?   I mean, besides burnt-out tuning motors and broken tape measure pushrods.

: )

Shown here, configured as a boat anchor.

[WB4AIO]

300G

Do tell !

I've been involved with a handful of them, from Ser. No. 22 through Ser. No. 147.

Stories?   I mean, besides burnt-out tuning motors and broken tape measure pushrods.

: )

Shown here, configured as a boat anchor.

Nice picture. That transmitter looks awfully familiar! WUST didn't care about it enough to buy new tubes for it, though -- I bet it sounds better now than it did when the Voodoo Healing Hour was being transmitted through it. (By the way, what rig were you on last night on 75 meters? It didn't sound like the 300G.)

I began my broadcast career in 1975 by hanging out at Washington-area Top-40 legend 1390 WEAM with Morgan Burrow, WB4BSI, who was then the CE. He had replaced Ed Buterbaugh, and in 1978 I would replace him. I really loved the RCA BTA-10U2 main transmitter there. A custom-ordered 10,000 Watt unit running at half power, it had tons of clean audio -- it could modulate about 200 per cent. positive effortlessly.

I also did several stints at the competition on the other side of town, WPGC AM and FM Morningside.

Later I did independent consulting and eventually became senior engineer at Multiphase Consulting. I doubt I can remember all the stations I did work for! WMJR 107.7, WHFS 99.1, WMET 1050, Radio Marti, WUST, WYCB, WEEL 1310, WNAV 1430, WYRE 810, WETA 90.9, WGTB 90.1, WPFW 89.3, WANN 1190, WKDW 900, WUSQ 610 and 102.5, WLMD 900, WPIK 730, WRQX 107.3, WAVA 780 and 105.1, WCXR 105.9, WEZR 106.7, WLTE 94.7, WBZE 1030, are just a few that come to mind.

If it weren't for the influence of the hi-fi AM gang on 75 meters, I never would have entered the field, had all those experiences, or learned all that radio and audio science and magic.

Here's a picture of me taken in the WEAM studio in May 1984. I'm the one who looks like a young kid (I was 27).

Time passes!

73,

Kevin, WB4AIO.

[K4RT]

I have enjoyed reading the remarks in this thread - thank you for sharing.

Since the thread has morphed somewhat into nonengineering radio types, I'll note that I put some time in on the air side of things starting as a DJ at KMCD 1570 AM in Fairfield, Iowa and when the newsman quit I was asked to take his spot. I was newsman at KBIZ 1240 AM Ottumwa, Iowa, anchor/reporter for Missourinet, a statewide commercial news network based in Jeff City, Missouri owned by Learfield Communications.  It was a privilege to know the Learfield engineers. They were very knowledgeable, capable, and when I was there in the 90s they were all hams. I also worked as an anchor/reporter for WDEL AM Wilmington, Delaware, anchor for CNN Radio in Atlanta, and finally anchor for ABC Radio Networks. I anchored from the Washington, DC bureau on DeSales Street and occasionally from NYC on West End Avenue. The ABC engineers I knew were top notch. I was fortunate to leave ABC as the Citadel implosion loomed. Others were not so lucky, but I hope they landed on their feet.

A new engineer for KMCD in the 80s, Mark McVey, also climbed the tower. Mark had built several stations for a group owner.  One of his first tasks was to figure out how to tune the mistuned shunt fed grounded tower, a problem he discovered. If I recall correctly, he had to try different locations on the tower to find the right match.  He knew I was a ham so one day he took me to the tower site to show me the Gates AM transmitter. I don't remember what the FM transmitter was, but I do remember it was purchased used from Iowa State University. I recall being there another time when he climbed the tower to install an STL antenna so the station could get rid of the studio to transmitter phone lines. I think Mark reflects the great small market radio engineers - and what they don't know they figure out how to do the right way, sometimes facing tight budget constraints. He would make a great ham operator.

In my opinion, the "talent" side of broadcasting is the engineering side.

[WA3VJB]

Heya Brad -- it's a wonder we haven't crossed paths !

Good to see ya.

[John K5PRO]

Greg, was it a Wilkinson, the 1 kW AM with 4-400As?

Kevin, I remember visiting WEAM in the late 1970s when I was working with John Bissett at Delta Electronics, and meeting you. You had some interesting telephone devices too.

[WB4AIO]

Kevin, I remember visiting WEAM in the late 1970s when I was working with John Bissett at Delta Electronics, and meeting you. You had some interesting telephone devices too.

Yes, we had a lot of fun in those days, and the sacred Bell System landlines were fodder for occasional experimentation too. The PBX in WEAM's basement "phone room" was the size of two BC-610s!

A few years later I would go on some C-QUAM AM stereo exciter install trips for Delta. John Bissett was one of the founders of Multiphase.

Nice to reconnect after all these decades, John.

With my best,


Kevin, WB4AIO.

[K4RT]

Heya Brad -- it's a wonder we haven't crossed paths !

Good to see ya.

Hi Paul - I got that Apache from Al W1UX.  I'm planning to use it in the upcoming AM Transmitter Rally - maybe we'll have a QSO!  I think my friend Dave WA3GIN recently mentioned your call sign - maybe you had a QSO with Dave.

73,
Brad

[Steve - K4HX]

Heard Dave on 40 meters a few days ago working DX with his three element Yagi.

[K4RT]

Dave has three full-size elements on that 40 yagi. I think he built it using parts from an old 20 meter monobander and irrigation tubing.

[Steve - K4HX]

Yep. Very nice. The JAs have been coming through on the long path in the afternoons lately. Lots of fun.

[W1DAN]

OK...I'll chime in......

I am a broadcast engineer. Started in radio at Tulane when they were ending their carrier current days and moved to TV in the 1980s. Currently working for a large station in Boston, and it keeps me quite busy. It does make me a bit tired to work on ham radio, but the broadcast engineering field is getting farther away from any connection to traditional radio that I enjoy the older analog radio and audio.

Greg: good to see you here. You seem to have had a very interesting career. We should chat again about your audio processing work.

Good photos of Brad and Paul.

73,
Dan
W1DAN
Natick, MA

[Tim WA1HnyLR]

While it has been a BBlongggg time since I checked into AMfone I was delighted to see all of the comment about broadcash engineers on AM.
My interest started from the warm soft glow of the vacuuuuum toobs in the back of my mothers kitchen radio , A Zenith model , I borrowed the radio to study it and listen to it. I found radio programming of the time to be a bit dull and boring. Then I discovered rock and roll(1957 time frame) The music was relatively new at the time. I started to collect radios I would strip them for parts if they did not work. It was a few years later that I replace an electrolytic in an old RCA  all American 5 bakelite cabinet radio in 1959. That cured the hum. Wow Man!, I can actually FIX something for a change. I had that radio up until the fire of '92. I also knew what Ham radio was. I always wanted to be into an activity to meet up with others that shared my passion in radio. By the time 1964 rolled around I finally figured out how to make a transmitter. I used parts from old TV sets. The horizontal sweep tubes made great PA stages as well as modulators. I came up with a set of call letters,WTIM which I discovered had been assigned to a station in Taylorville,Ind. I changed the call letter to WXNZ. I consulted with Whites Radio long in a 1962 edition of Electronics Illustrated. I also found that 1200 Kc. was a clear channel here in the north east. I used that frequency for years on and off. Through High school I met a fellow student who had his own little pirate station in his bedroom. He was using a Lafayette radio broadcaster. It was a screen modulated 50BM8. I changed it to plate modulation. We soon built a studio in his parents basement. He built the 4 channel mixing board and an audio amplifier that ended up with a pair of 6L6s in the outpoot. All schematics adapted from the RCA receiving tube manual. I built the transmitter. A 5881 oscillator driving a 6146. The modulator was the 6L6 audio amp. The radio"BUG" had really bitten me. There was a ham on the street corner near where my friend lived. I eventually knocked on the door of his hamshack. The gruff old buzzard seem annoyed . When he saw that I was interested . he showed me around. I guess you could say he became my"Elmer" He was a staunch AMer. Yep , Old Buzzard Dana, K1EAM . In the Summer of 1966 I took my broadcast call of WXNZ added a W1 transposed the letters a bit and came on 75 meter AM under the call sign of W1NXZ.I took the transmitter I had built from old TV set parts changed the tank components  to a multiband HF transmitter and I was on the air with the "Crapbox 40" It was painfully obvious to some people that I was a"boot" . I slid up to 40 meters where the whole mentality was different. I got away with it for a while. I knew I would have to  buckle down and learn CW. After being on 75 in Sept of '66 I was talking to an old buzzard. Cleo, K1ZJK. He seem innocuous and laid back. He did want to call me to call him on the phonium. He said he knew I was a boot and wanted to help me get my ticket. He taught code and theory classes at his home. Cleo was and old Navy guy. He came over to the house with a reel to reel tape machine with code practice tapes. I had a reel to reel machine as well. I made a copy of his tape. I practiced dilligently. In Feb of 1967 the call sign of WN1HLR was assigned. It sure was a stretch learning the ins and outs of CW operation. The "Crapbox 40" using cathode keying worked well. By Sept'67 I finally passed the general and got on 75 and joined the ranks. Being in high school one ponders what one is going to do when they graduate. I thought seriously of enetring the field of broadcash engineering. My Elmer Old Buzzard Dana suffered a stroke and was taking time off from work. I would visit with him frequently on my way to the train station. The last two years of my schooling was at a prep school in Boston. Old buzzard Dana had a re-occurrence of his stroke He passed away,,,sitting on the crapper. I helped with the disbursement of his equipment and parts. I wound up with one of his books. The  Rider manual for the FCC commercial exams. I studied all aspects of the theory and practice of the text.
In 1970 I was living in Allston,near Boston. I took public transportation to the Customs house Went up to room 1600, home of the Boston office of the FCC and took my test. There were a few false starts but I passed it. The FCC was well aware of my hell raising on ham radio. In the waiting room many people were waiting for their verdicts, Pass or Fail. A pall of smoke from people smoking cancer sticks hung in the air. The secretary calls out my name and tells me that the Engineer in charge wanted to see me. Everybody looks at me while I got up from my chair and head into into his office. I expected to get chewed out again. Instead I was greeted by a handshake and a congratulations on passing my First Class Radio Telephone License. I was so happy!. He also said that If I needed a job he might be able to help out. I was honored . As it was a friend of mine had a part time shift job at WMEX at their transmitter site in Quincy ,Ma. Back then many site were still manned. He got me a part time job which later turned into a full time job. I lasted about a year and 3 months The owner of the station passed away. The Chief Engineer became in full control of hiring and firing. He was not too enamored by my style ,,,so I was removed from the gene pool. After collecting unemployment and later entering the electronics industry working for H.H.Scott in Maynard Ma. It lasted about 3 months , Then the company went bankrupt. I hated it. As my life had changed and I had a woman in my life and the unemployment candle was burning low I went on a job search. I wound up becoming CE at WMLO in Danvers ,Ma. 1973. The transmitter was a Gates BC500 -T It was a 2 tower directional array day only. I did bring over a transmitter and load up one of the towers. I used the main studio and the audio processing equipment to feed the audio driver. I was on the air on 75. I was quite effective. I do emember talking to Paul WA3VJB using his 32-V transmitter. I lasted there 1 year and 7 months. The general manager and I always seemed to be at war. Having a licensed first phone operator was crucial to his operation. The FCC required it. I performed may different tasks from running proof of performance measurements to paperwork trying to keep track of operating and maint .logs a big hassle for me. I even mowed the lawn, Fixed the clogged terlit that the GM clogged up. I started covering the board after 6Pm when daylight hours were extended in Feb of 74. The Arab oil embargo hit. The GM said "Play some jazz" I had 10 minutes to fill from the tail end of Mutual news til sign off. I place an Emerson ,Lake ,and Palmer disc on the turn table. The GM came storming in. I told him ELP is jazz/rock it is instrumental music . He told me to take it off. I told him to take a hike. If I was going to be on the air I am going to do what I want. I started walking for the door. He said OK,All right. The TimTron Radio Show was born. I figured I had something more to do with my life other than just engineering and janitorial services. There are many more tales from this crypt. I got the can in Feb 1975. They hired another guy. Within a couple of months all of the equipment started breaking down including the transmitter. They were off the air and the yahoo the hired could not fix any of it. Poetic justice. Back to the unemployment line I went. I took a year sabbatical. I found employment in Maine with a group of stations WSKW, WTOS, and eventually,WPNO. The word stared getting around that there was the new young "hippie" engineer who has unconventional ways and methods of making thing work and run reliably for little money . I had much work. I had move to Mechanic Falls in the beginning. A year later I moved to Skowhegan,Maine.This is my current place of being. I have been involved with the group of stations in the area on and off for years.Still am even though I am semi-retired. In 1990 I built WHQO a class A fmat my property. The CP was not mine, I wish it was. !n 1991 I started doing consulting engineering for Armstrong transmitter near Syracuse N.Y. Gary W2INR lived down the road and worked there part time . The owner of the company was over at Gary's hamshack . I was on the air with my 4-1000 transmitter. The question put to Gary was" Can this man fix transmitters?" I got a phonium call. I started work out there. I resserected  transmitters of all makes and models. My specialty became converting 50Kw AM broadcast transmitters to short wave broadcash service. These were bought by various Bible Beaters to broadcash their point of view. I traveled much. I did many transmitter installations as well a fix problems that others could not. It was quite the learning and hands on and doing experience.By 1999 the business was winding down. Broadcashers wanted solid state transmitters. Armstrong Transmitter went into the direction of selling new equipment. At that time I had gotten involved with helping Allan Weiner who had a construction permit to build WBCQ. I got his modified  MW 50 to work on 7415. Allan kept banging on me to come and work for him and help him run the station. I got free airtime as well. In Oct of 1999 Radio Timtron Worldwide started broadcashing. I did what I wanted and NO BODY had any say over what I did. I shortly phased out of Armstrong Transmitter and semi retired except for working for Allan on a part time basis. And now thanks to computer control the station does not need the intensive labor to run it. So here I sit mostly retired doing my thing. No, broadcash engineering has not made me much money 'unless I am in the consulting mode'  I look back through the years and I am very grateful for the direction that my life has taken me. The melding of Amateur radio. Building transmitters  and working in the broadcash industry. When I passed my First 'fone license I considered it my college diploma. In the spirit of de regulation in 1984 it became no longer necessary   to hold the license. Renewal for it was a month away from when the requirement was deleted . I just said "Screw it!" I was disappointed. As it is I see many changes afoot. Radio Broadcash services are on the decline. There are many new avenues to listen to music and news and other audio services. Radio has shot itself in the foot with the big conglomerations. The homoginization of playlists Music formats boiled down to the lowest common denominator. Too many commercials punctuate the mix. If radio is to survive it has to re-invent itself. The knowledge posessed by today's radio amateur radio operator and skill set are all the further removed from broadcash engineering. The emphasis is on digital theory. The people that are out there that can do broadcash engineering are much fewer and far between. The money is just not there anymore.
Tim WA1HnyLR

[WA3VJB]

I had this weird text-to-voice conversion going on in my head while reading that, Timmy.

REALLY enjoyed the story and that you took the time

rrrawwwk

[WB4AIO]

Wow, what a story, Tim -- thank you.

You said: "When I passed my First 'fone license I considered it my college diploma. In the spirit of deregulation in 1984 it became no longer necessary to hold the license. Renewal for it was a month away from when the requirement was deleted. I just said 'Screw it!' I was disappointed."

I felt the same way. Regardless of the fact that the dumbed-down System doesn't even allow it to be renewed anymore, I still hold P1-24-11461, and it still means what it always did, no matter what they say.

73,

Kevin, WB4AIO.

[W3GMS]

While it has been a BBlongggg time since I checked into AMfone I was delighted to see all of the comment about broadcash engineers on AM.

Fantastic story Tim.  I knew some of it but the extra details filled in the blanks for me!  I will never forget that visit to GMS Radio when I was just a JN back in 67! 

Thanks for taking the time to document your walk through life! 

Joe, GMS

[KB2WIG]

Thats quite a message.


I'm still wondering about the "p**s into the mine shaft" recording/effect from the70s'.

klc

[K6IC]

Yes,   great stories,  all.

Thanks Tim for the detail --  quite a life.

The First Phone sure was my Ticket to Ride!  Thanks,  Vic

[NS5F]

I started out in broadcasting in 1970 and have worked as talent and engineer/chief engineer across the US.
On-air talent in OKC, Denver, KC, Chicago, Dallas and many more. Chief (or was that cheap) Engineer in pretty much the same markets.
My AM transmitter experience ranges from Collins 20E, General Electric XT-1A, Collins "Power Rock", Collins 317C, Gates MW-5, Harris DX-50,DAX-50 and Nautel NX-50. Directional antenna systems from basic 4 tower up through the "legendary" 12 tower monster at ex-KLIF 1190 in Dallas.

Recent hobby work/restorations include Western Electric 451A, Gates BC1t/g and H. RCA 250m, 1R, 1R3, 1L and a couple of more. I enjoy the "quality" warmth you get when using tube consoles (RCA/GATES) vintage tube processing (RCA/GATES) followed by a vintage tube transmitter..
73

[KL7OF]

Ray, my hobby of playing with AM transmitters spawned time as a broadcast engineer, but only because the hardware at work was so similar to what I had at home. 

My main line of work is broadcast journalism, but I got called upon early in my career to be an "assistant" engineer at a low budget kilowatt daytime-only AM station.  Tube transmitter (main and backup), tube boards, and the kind of multi-band audio processing I later put in place here at home.

But I don't think I'd want to have a primary job as an RF guy, broadcast transmitter technician, because work and play would tend to merge.

Others have done that, very successfully, with Dave W2VW being an example I like to point out.

My "success" was limited to scoring some pulls from the transmitters, being able to mix music tapes after signoff, and (occasionally) to pump a 32V2 into one of the 300' towers with their ground field in a swamp.  This time of year, signoff was mandated at 4:45pm, before the end of evening drive time!

These activities are not generally part of "air talent" responsibilities, and as you can see, when it was time to do the news it was completely formal and structured.

Paul...That picture of the Van and the guy sitting out in the open needs an explanation...Please?

[WA3VJB]

That was taken a few years ago.  The van is the "Mini Mobile Music Maker" that the radio station would park at an event. The DJs would do their show live from there, playing records & commercials and sometimes also having someone like me doing the news "on location."

These days a remote broadcast might consist only of a DJ phoning in their promotion of the client's event, with the rest of the show coming from the main studio.

The guy in the shot is me.

On this particular day, it was nice out and the morning DJ and I thought it would be a great idea to power up the van and have class outside.  We are right near the main station house, with an extension cord for power coming out the back door, and an audio line dropped back to an input on the station's main board.

So he did his show and I did the news, with the sound of birds and tree frogs authenticating the broadcast when the mics were open.

Next to my right foot is an air monitor, a battery powered Potomac Instruments unit that the engineering department would ordinarily use to measure field strength.  

The car is a 1970 Datsun Roadster 2000, the first one I had of the overhead cam, 135hp variety. Here, it has a removable hardtop on it. Car/top long gone. That's my first Datsun, a 1968 1600. I didn't remember having the hardtop on it at any time, but there it is.  Later put it on the 2000, which was missing its convertible top frame. Went back to another example (1969) of the roadster 1600 overhead valve in 1984 and still have it, only with the drop top.

A rather interesting car for a news cruise.

Last month I thought of that car when I was on stakeout at the home of Edward Snowden's mother. She lives in what would have been WLMD's broadcast area, very close to an intersection where I "sold" air time to the owner of a gas station.  My supervisor said if I could sell advertising time in exchange for gasoline, I could use the gas to fill my car for newsgathering.  

Imagine, years later, here I am on stakeout, happening to be in my own car (again), and seeing that corner where I used to fill up a news cruiser from an earlier time (like, before Snowden was born).

[flintstone mop]

Hey Kevin, just chattering away here on this resurrected thread.
Kevin were you at WEAM when Johnny Dark did remotes at the Tops drive-ins? "Tops Telequest time" The music came from the studio.
And you say you were also at WPGC, the loudest ( worst audio) AM/FM station on the B'cast bands. Did you maintain that secret? or did they do away with those daisy-chained processors??

Fred

[WB4AIO]

Hey Kevin, just chattering away here on this resurrected thread.
Kevin were you at WEAM when Johnny Dark did remotes at the Tops drive-ins? "Tops Telequest time" The music came from the studio.

Ha, no... I was a WEAM listener then, though. I'd estimate that time period as 1964-1968, when I was nine to twelve years old. I first walked in the door at WEAM in 1975 and became chief engineer in 1978.

And you say you were also at WPGC, the loudest ( worst audio) AM/FM station on the B'cast bands. Did you maintain that secret? or did they do away with those daisy-chained processors??

Fred

I was at WPGC from 1976 to 1978 under the great long-haired, wild-eyed, and Jaguar-XKE-driving Milford K. Smith.

When I first arrived the FM was running (and slamming) a pair of the legendary Teletronix LA-2 optical limiters into a modified stereo Volumax and CCA tube-type exciter. Later they went to hot-rodded Dorrough 310s into a modified Orban 8000. The AM side ran a modified DAP into a Urei EQ, BL-40 Modulimiter, and Harris "Modulation Enhancer" clipper. Both AM and FM shared a massive EMT plate reverb mounted behind the transmitters.

They had a unique sound. It was cleaner than you'd expect for the huge amount of processing they used, and pleasant in its own way. I admit they didn't sound "high fidelity," but they were, well... awesome.

At WEAM, I used an LA-2 into a Lang PEQ equalizer and heavily modified Solid Statesman limiter into our amazing RCA BTA-10U2 10kW transmitter running at 5kW. Later the LA-2 was replaced by an LA-3 and I added a modified Dorrough 310. For a microphone processor, I used a hot-rodded tube-type CBS Labs Audimax to which I had added an RCA tone control circuit right out of the RCA vacuum tube handbook. I never stopped using the Solid Statesman limiter; liked it a lot. What fun.

73,

Kevin, WB4AIO.