Category: Radio

Feeling Queasy

I’m sure you heard this bit of news …

WASHINGTON – Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson (news, bio, voting record) of South Dakota was hospitalized after becoming disoriented Wednesday, weeks before his party is to take control of the Senate by a one-vote margin.

The audio clip is of WBZ radio talk show host Pat Desmarais, an arch-conservative, who points out that if Senator Johnson is unable to serve in January, Governor Mike Rounds would undoubtedly appoint a Republican to the post. This is a prospect that makes me feel very uneasy.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Sounds/Wordpress/DEC06/WBZ.mp3]

At the moment, Johnson is reported to have not suffered from either a heart attack or a stroke. Perhaps they should check him for polonium-210 poisoning? 😉

Technical note: WBZ 1030 is an AM radio station in Boston with a great signal. But it doesn’t sound anywhere near as good as this 64 Kbps sound clip I captured. Live audio streams are getting very good. For a while I was thinking about getting an HD Radio for bedside use, but now I’m wondering if an Internet radio might be a better choice.

The Jazz Decades

WGBH.gifI’m not a huge Jazz fan. Somewhere along the line, for my taste Jazz became so much about improvisation there wasn’t enough structure left to hang onto. Sunday evenings there’s a radio show on WGBH in Boston I enjoy, called The Jazz Decades, hosted by Ray Smith, who by now must be in his 80’s. He specializes in music from the 20’s and 30’s, playing both original recordings from then, as well as more recent renditions of old songs. When necessary, Smith resorts to vinyl, as he did tonight.

The audio player below has 35 minutes of The Jazz Decades show. I was going to offer only 10 minutes of it, but tonight’s selections were interesting, so I let it roll. I was surprised to hear my town, Hopkinton, MA, mentioned. Apparently, there was a legendary place here called The Sticky Wicket, that featured live Jazz until about 15 years ago, which is news to me.

There are some splices in this recording. The first 24 minutes were taken from the FM tuner in my PC. Then, for contrast, right after he says, “This is Ray Smith,” I switched over to WGBH’s live streaming Net audio. For the 1930’s recordings, the loss in sound quality isn’t all that apparent. But I still look forward to the time when all live Net radio is at least 128 Kbps.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Sounds/Wordpress/DEC06/JazzDecades.mp3]

Boston Goes Country

WCRBBeing the once-upon-a-time radio guy that I am, some of the doings in the broadcasting business interest me. I have a more than casual appreciation of Classical music, although I would not call myself a connoisseur, by any means. There are two Classical music stations in Boston — WGBH 89.7 FM and WCRB, which from 1954 until today (Friday) was at 102.5 FM. WGBH is a public station, named after the Great Blue Hill. WCRB stands for Charles River Broadcasting, and it’s a commercial station.

WCRB has in recent years been derided as “Classical Lite.” Playings of Beethoven’s 6th Symphony and Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons have become a bit too frequent, and during “drive time” no complete works are played. But still, one can count on WCRB to be playing Classical music, even when WGBH switches to Jazz in the evening.

Earlier this year, WCRB was sold. The business dealings were a little complicated, and if you want to read about them, click here. The upshot is that today at noon, WCRB swapped frequencies with a Country music station, WKLB at 99.5. WCRB is now broadcasting over an antenna that’s not west of Boston, but north, near the New Hampshire border, far away from the Charles River. The general consensus is that WCRB is the loser in the deal, but we’re lucky it’s still a Classical format.

The recording on the audio player below is from the FM tuner in my computer. I shortened the gap of dead air between the end of WCRB and the start of WKLB, but otherwise this is how the rather abrupt end of an era sounded today in Boston. If you know the piece of music that WCRB used to close its 52 years at 102.5, you’ll get the sly and wry joke.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Sounds/Wordpress/DEC06/FM1025.mp3]

Picture This

Edna Mae Horner

The history of radio technology is clearly understood. There is little doubt as to who did what technically, and who did what to whom. Television has a much muddier picture, because there were many people working independently on its creation.

Edwin Armstrong made AM radio practical and he invented FM radio. Philo Farnsworth invented purely electronic (as distinct from mechanical) television. Both men were destroyed by David Sarnoff, a founder of RCA and its longtime chairman. More about “General” Sarnoff later.

AT&T — the original Ma Bell — had one of the labs that was trying to come up with a working TV system. In April, 1927, two months before my late mother was born, AT&T demonstrated mechanical television with 50 lines of resolution. Click here to read a bit about it, and see a simulation of how the picture may have looked. The photo above is of Edna Mae Horner, “one good-looking girl with fluffy hair,” who appeared on camera during the demonstration.

New York Radio ‘Box Set’

Here are links to all five parts of the previously-posted video history of New York Top 40 radio, along with some extras.  Don’t miss the jingles, taken from the original master tapes.

 
 

Sweet Talkin’ Guys

1. WINS
2. WINS vs. WMCA
3. WMCA vs. WABC
4. WABC
5. AM vs. FM

Extras:

• Cousin Brucie vs. HOA
• Radio a Go-Go!
• Scott Muni
• WMCA Jingles
• WABC Jingles
• Cousin Brucie 10/14/06

Links:

• WABC Music Radio 77
• WABC Saturday Night Oldies