WFAN

[Rick Kelly]

On Thu, 08 Jan 2004 12:17:06 -0500 Scott Fybush <scott@fybush.com>
writes:

> 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.

Going back to the early eighties, at WIXY/1600AM Springfield we had a
Schafer 903 Automation system, with six banks of slots for carts.  Each
bank had space for 15 carts.  Three banks could be randomly programmed,
the other three were sequential.  Folks avoided using the sequential like
the plague, because they were a pain.  The way they worked was different
from the method that Matt Stevens described with the IGM INstacart 48
tape head system.  These had on tape head per bank, and the tape head
travelled up and down the bank on a track.  You can imagine the alignment
nightmares the system had.  WIXY also had three cart carousels (round)
units that each held 24 carts.  The carousels were known to be very
unreliable and the absolute worst when it came to alignment.  There were
constant problems.  But by the early eighties, the system was old, and
pretty beat, so it was understandable.  Still, the old Schafer 903 was a
remarkable great grandfather to the hard drive systems commonly used
today.

Rick Kelly
www.northeastairchecks.com


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