Category: Radio

No Static at All – 2

My parents’ General Electric 408 AM/FM Radio from 1950, the year they were married. Dig that Atomic Age tuning dial!

My bedside radio as a kid in Connecticut was my parents’ old GE 408 that I rescued from the attic. It was introduced in 1950, only a few years after the FCC’s mandated change in FM frequencies, from 42-50 MHz to 88-108 MHz.

Edwin Howard Armstrong invented and patented FM. Armstrong had a very difficult time getting broadcasters to embrace his cutting-edge technology, despite the fact his inventions had made AM broadcasting possible. So Armstrong started his own radio network.

“In the war’s final year, big industry, led principally by RCA, was working quietly behind the scenes to undermine FM’s position… The interests aligned against FM were concealing a strong poker hand, and they planned to play their cards as soon as the war ended.”

http://www.theradiohistorian.org/fm/fm.html

The war stopped Armstrong just as FM was gaining in popularity. Then the post-war frequency band change rendered his FM radios obsolete. His consolation prize was FM being mandated by the FCC for TV sound.

Ad for Zenith radios with “Genuine Armstrong Frequency Modulation,” from the December 6, 1941 issue of The Saturday Evening Post

No Static at All – 1

Something I failed to spot in 2015 was the 50th anniversary of the Master FM Antenna installation on top of the Empire State Building. There was a light show, commemorating the date, synchronized to Steely Dan’s “FM”.

The song was from the 1978 movie of the same name.

Ironically or not, we played “FM” on the AM station where I worked. In 1978, for a $15/week raise, I became a one-man news department, like Les Nessman on the fictitious AM station WKRP in Cincinatti, which premiered that same year. Loni Anderson was a breakout star on the show, but for me the one to watch was Jan Smithers.

https://youtu.be/gHNHj6Kg5gs?t=1094

The DJ Who Played VJ

Dick Biondi’s family has announced that he died last week, on June 26, at age 90. On February 23, 1963, Biondi was the first American DJ to play a Beatles record, a full year before they came here. Biondi was on WLS in Chicago, home of VJ, the only record label that wanted the Beatles.

https://www.beatle.net/biondi-announcing-please-please-me/

Biondi’s passing will make Sunday’s showing of a new documentary about his life bittersweet.

https://www.dickbiondifilm.com/

From WABC to WRKO

Rewound Radio is playing Musicradio WABC airchecks from the ’60’s and 70’s for its Memorial Day Weekend programming.

Click to go to Rewound Radio

As I have said here many times, WABeatleC was the sound of my childhood in Connecticut. Listening to WABC was my inspiration for wanting to work in radio when I grew up.

After my family moved to Massachusetts, I listened to WRKO in Boston on my bedside GE AM radio. Here are some RKO airchecks from my peak years of listening to the station, before buying my first stereo and tuning the Pioneer SX-440 receiver to WBCN FM. At one point, a bit of a commercial with WABC’s Dan Ingram can be heard.