A Boston First?

[Shawn Mamros]

>Well, the WGBH-FM 89.7 broadcast would certainly have been analog in 1986.
>And if they were using a digital audio source like a CD, that wouldn't
>have been a first of any sort in 1986, either.

It might be remotely possible that they could've rigged up a fully digital
signal path from a CD (or some other source) all the way to a D-to-A
converter before the exciter.  (Don't think anyone had an exciter back then
that would take digital in, the way current ones can.)  That would be as
close as you could get to all-digital on analog FM in those days.  Seems
like an awful lot of trouble to get there, though, with what was available
at the time.

>Could this have been when they tried using WGBX 44's video signal to carry
>the output of the old Sony PCM-501 digital converter?

That sounds more likely.  I remember hearing about them doing that on
Channel 44.

> We used to use those
>at WBRS (circa 1990) to make digital recordings of our live music show, in
>that pre-CD burner era. We'd record them to a Beta (later a VHS) cassette,
>which could then be played back through the converter. Wonder if the
>station still has the tapes, or the converter? (Aaron?)

At WMBR, we also had a PCM-501, and we also used it to record our live
music show.  (I was still in school at the time, which would've made
it 1989 or earlier.)  Pretty sure we still have the tapes, at least;
whether the converter's still around is a good question...

-shawn