Re: WMBR and stereo (was Re: WHIL/WWEL)

["'A. Joseph Ross'" <lawyer@world.std.com>]

On Tue, 24 Nov 1998, Shawn Mamros wrote:

> I keep wondering whether the MIT students that first built the Walker
> Memorial studios, including the broadcast consoles, knew that FM stereo
> would soon be coming into being or not.  After all, the FCC authorized
> FM stereo in the same year that WTBS-FM signed on, and WCRB at least was
> using it by the end of the year.  The consoles had two mono channels and
> a cue channel - in theory, at least, one could've combined both mono
> channels into a stereo channel.  For a while after we went stereo, we
> actually did try to use one of the old boards on an occasional basis.
> Doing a stereo show was possible, but extremely awkward, and most people
> of course preferred the brand-new board with the built-in stereo faders.

Actually, I remember the WMUA equipment of that vintage (new in 1963) 
being used in a similar fashion to broadcast a program in stereo.  But
since we weren't equipped for FM stereo, they did stereo by putting one
channel on the AM carrier-current system and the other channel on FM.

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