Speaking of Beeeps

[bill.smith@comcast.net]

I believe the CAP's top of the hour tone -- and a good, healthy tone it was -- 
was a Dave Cate invention (he did all the work, oft-times using modified 
Heathkit stuff, but was never the CE because that spot was reserved for the 
mysterious Third Brother, Teddy Cohen).  As I recall, when the second hand was 
sweeping the top of the hour the U-thing would "hold" the second hand for the 
burst of tone, and then it would snap ahead to HR:00:02, so if the announcer in 
"Master" was standing and had the mic potted up, the click of the snapping would 
be picked up on mic. This didn't happen when the announcer was seated and the 
mic thus shielded by the rise of the world's only functioning CCA board.   Once, 
the tone stopped functioning and this became a major executive priority, which 
was bliss for the staff since it gave them something to do.

Bill O'Neil wrote:
> <harp sfx in> Love the tone.  One of the way-back tones at WCAP was  
> this big, ancient master control studio clock. Under the "12" Ike  
> Cohen had rigged-up some sort of "U" shaped set of contacts, with a  
> contact at the tip of the second hand. When the second hand swept  
> the first contact it opened the line from the tone oscillator in  
> rack (that was always on) and as it swept the second contact, it  
> closed the switch. The swipe time was about 2 seconds. (It actually  
> worked!)