WFAN

[Matt Stevens]

 At 12:00 PM 1/8/2004 -0500, you wrote:
> >Scott Fybush wrote:

Yes, but in a weird way. Rather than using digital audio storage, the
> touchscreens simply remote controlled a bank of carts (can't remember the
> brand name, though we cursed it every day for years) on the other side of
> the window in master control. One of the MC op's most important
> responsibilities was to make sure the right carts were loaded in the right
> slots in the beast each hour.

The cart decks were IGM Instacarts. They had 48 slots and a motor and long
capstan for each row of carts. The carts would be inserted on little sheet
metal trays with the pinch rollers built in to them. All 48 tape heads
shared one amplifier and output so if a cart jammed and you went to another
one, the first cart would get "unstuck" ..you'd get two spots on the air at
once. The only thing you could do is kill the power to the unit and start
over.

Aligning all 48 heads was a real chore..it required two people. One person
behind the rack to loosen the head mounts with a very long screwdriver and
another person in front to twist the head with a special tool (that would
always get lost). Twist very gently for the best output with a 10k tone,
then the guy in back tightened the mount hoping he didnt move the head. One
head down...47 to go!   What fun back in the 80s when we had the same brand
machines at WZID in Manchester during the B/EZ days.

Matt Stevens
WNBP Newburyport
Where OnAirWare plays everything  digitally  www.onairware.com