Re: Neighbors, at the tone...

[mwaters@mail.wesleyan.edu (Martin J. Waters)]

>Bill O'Neill wrote:
>I think it also depends upon where within the air chain the tone
>oscillator/generator lies as well as the audio output level of the
>tone source.

        A long post that I think was on AIRWAVES once appeared to contain
authoritative info., about the WTIC tone. It is put on at a very hot level,
definitely sounding on top of anything else. IMO, it sure encourages the
announcers to talk up to it and stop, though <g>. It's put on at the
transmitter site, using the same tone generator that was hand-built when
they first came up with the idea. I don't remember the exact timing -
trigger mechanism for triggering it, or whether that's been updated. The
tone was first put on July 4, 1943. They also have a recording of it at the
studio that can be played manually if the tone generator breaks down, this
post said.

        A few times I've heard the signal at the wrong time, like 20 after
the hour or whatever. I guess either the studio version was played
accidentally or the tone generator malfunctioned and went off at the wrong
time. But I've never heard the signal fail to sound on the hour.

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