Posted by Mike Biel on May 11, 1998 at 00:19:08:
In Reply to: Re: recording equipment posted by michael muderick on May 06, 1998 at 22:48:09:
Why do __I__ always have to have the answers??!! In the Spring of 1963 I visited Temple as one of the prospective schools I was considering applying to. John Roberts showed us the blueprints for the new building on the huge conference desk he had in the middle of his large office in 1947-1949 N. Broad. We also toured the Thomas Hall studios.
Sitting to the right of the equipment racks in Control B/Master Control were two disc cutters. They were where we later remember the Ampex 354 being. When I arrived there in the fall of 64 those cutters were gone, although over the years I found the stash of unused discs. I'm using them now, by the way.
Two or three years later I was going upstairs to an office or perhaps to the journalism lab in 1947-1949 and a closet door was open. Inside were the two disc cutters!!! They were portable units and they had their lids on, but I knew what they were. I have been kicking myself for the past 30 years fo rnot dragging them out of the closet and setting them up again.
: The cutting equipment probably found its way, via Peabody and Johnson Halls to Teaneck New Jersey. I don't know why I think that, but I'll just bet....
I only wish! You know damn well they wouldn't have missed them, and they probably threw them out a few years later. I did 7 years of research into the history of broadcast recording for my Ph.D. dissertation and never had the experience of cutting a disc myself.
I do have a cutter now, finally. I had taken a lathe when I left Northwestern--just the lathe and cutter head, no turntable or amp. About 5 years ago I got a call from the Education Dept here at Morehead saying they were tossing out their old stuff lying in their audio-video teaching lab and to take what I want. There were two wind-up Victrolas that I had been asking about for ten years, and I got those. Then there was this Presto K portable cutter that I grabbed!!! I will have it with me at the reunion, because I am taking it up to Syracuse for my presentation on the history of Lacuqer disc recording. I will be having friends cut my talk onto discs!
: Anyway, that explains why I have all these strobe labels no one wants. Hmmmm...... How about WRTI 45 th anniversary commemorative coasters?
No! I can cut a disc of our drama!!! And we can put REAL WRTI LABELS ON THEM!!!!!
I do have a couple of WRTI discs that have an older style label. One disc is in great shape. It is dated 1/10/57 and is a WRTI Playhouse of Stephen Vincent Benet's "A Child Is Born." It has the opening, but unfortunately it does not have the closing so the cast is not listed. But the recording engineer's initials is JC.
The other disc has severe lacquer peeling. It is of christmas selections by the O.H.S. A Capella Choir 12/6/55, but there is a recording date of 2/15/56. It might be a dubbing date. The recording engineer was J.R. Albert.
I have another record here that does have the WRTI strobe labels on it, but it is not a recording made at WRTI. It is the WRTI-AM copy of the Navy Recruiting disc of the National Anthem. I also have the other copy of the disc that was used for FM, but it has just the regular Navy labels.
Mike Biel mbiel@kih.net