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

[Brian Vita <brian_vita@cssinc.com>]

At 11:23 PM 11/25/98 -0500, SteveOrdinetz wrote:
>Speaking of weird tone arms...I've seen lots of pictures of studios from
>the 60s where the turntables had 2 arms, one in the "normal" place, and the
>other mounted on the "wrong" side of the turntable.  Anybody know what
>these backwards arms were for?

If its like the ones that I've seen, those were for 15" transcription
disks.  A lot of programs were archived and/or distributed on these massive
shellac disks.  They may have eventually switched to vinyl but these
definately predate the LP.  They also used a pretty substantial stylus
(needle) for playback.  (It looked like a 4d nail!)  Brute force was the
order of the day.

Another possiblity was that they were to be used with 78 RPM records.  The
shorter arm would have the lighter weight "micro-stylus" and the longer arm
would have the heavier "pig sticker" that was used to play the 78's back.

Trivia Question:  When sound movies first came out the sound was on disk
(Vitaphone).  Most of these shellac records played from the middle out.
Why? (I've been stumping fellow cinema techs with this one for years).

Brian

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