Listening to the Don Ingram clip with the turntables slowing down... maybe the line frequency was changing along with the voltage drop. I bet the power transformers at the transmitter were groaning in pain. I was in my fraternity house at Miami University in Ohio. A lot of us listened to WABC at night, clear as a bell. When we heard about the blackout, a lot of people tried to call their folks out east. Everybody wondered what the hell was going on.
BTW, loved the old "77-ABC" jingle and the ABC news sounder. And wow, what long commercials!
There were estimates by the actual playback compared to the slowed down version of "Everyone's Gone To The moon" that imbalanced electrical system was at 56 hz. The last song Ingram played before the final failure of the system where he mentions "everything is in the key of "R" the freq dropped to 51 HZ. and the system died for 13 hrs.
I have mixed memories from the late 60's of WABC when I was stationed at Ft Monmouth N.J. and listened to the same songs over and over and over and that familiar chime after EVERY song..
It was a great sounding AM station. The venerable plate modulated G.E. 50 KW...Lodi N.J. is the perfect antenna site for high power AM. Near the water if I remember correctly
Fred
